Job Discussion Forums

[bradwelljackson]

With the USA now on the decline, and China on the rise, is the interest in learning English also starting to decline? With China becoming ascendant, won't Chinese be the language of the future, and therefore, interest in learning English become passe'?
So, just to make sure that this is a job-related post, what I really want to know specifically is if demand for English teachers is going down in China (as a result of the decline of the USA and the West in general)?

[7969]

No.

[dean_a_jones]

[Zimmer]

I don't think demand will change much, but I could see it having an effect on the job market here as more and more unemployed Americans look to overseas jobs.

[choudoufu]

the english speaking world makes up how much of the world's
economy?

usa, canada, britain, australia, new zealand, miscellaneous english-
speaking colonies and protectorates, countries with a second
language of english.......

[rogerwilco]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

rogerwilco speaks the truth; a lot more Americans here than ever before.

But to answer the question: No.

The fact that America is economically suffering has no bearing on the importance of English. English is not important because of America, that would be very ethnocentric to believe so. It's the international language of business, and high school students have to perform well in order to get into a decent university.

[7969]

There was a thread last year or the year before where a poster claimed thousands of unemployed teachers from the US were on their way to China looking for work. If that's true I'd be interested in seeing the data that showed the true numbers (or any numbers). Some demographics too maybe? Age group?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[Miles Smiles]

There are three Americans in my li'l outpost of progress. The rest are Australians (about 12 or so). Australia has its share of employment problems, and it's cheaper to fly them here.

[Opiate]

The short answer to all of your questions is...NO.

[xiguagua]

Do you have any idea how EXPENSIVE and time consuming it would be for all the countries learning English to suddenly stop teaching English and start teaching Chinese? Yeah........possibly 100 years or more from now if China can somehow keep up their insane growth.....but none of us will be alive to see it.



^^ actually this is my exact same response to students who naively ask the same question.

[mrwslee003]

NO!
English as a language of international commerce, aviation, etc does not go up and down responding to the whims of the US economy.

English is more established as one of the most used languages than any other language in the world. The suggestion that the US is declining in economics does not mean it is going to drop off the face of the earth. It will take decades for the US to fade as an economic power, if it ever. The mear number of people in the US and its high tech sector will guarantee its dominance in the international market for a long time to come. Creativity in the US population is another strength to hold up its dominant position. So counting the US out so easily would be folly and imprudent.

Therefore, English will not diminish in importance in China in the near future. I think it is safe to say more Chinese will be bilingual in increasing numbers, that is to say being able to speak English and Chinese, as their
economy expands.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Let me rephrase my answer:

Demand will not go down, the demand will always be there. But there may be less available jobs because there are more American teachers. I recently found my job threatened (but not in jeopardy) because a young American 'college grad' came to my school promising to work for a very low salary and willing to work long hours.