Major in English

[janie]

Hi! Everyone! I get profoundly confused about what I can do after studying in only one language. Now I am majored in English which is quite desirable in education sector; unfortunately, I am not native speaker and won’t involve in education later after I graduate, even though being an English teacher can be profitable and successful. Are those who majored in English supposed to be English teacher afterwards? I’ve heard that there are so many prominent English teachers in cram school coming from non-English major background, many of which studied medicine or MBA. Even The Lord of Ring here is translated by students majoring in electricity. There comes the problem: what else can we do if we only study in English? I feel a little bit distressed when I think about what my future career will be.

[Lorikeet]

You haven't mentioned what country you are in, or what your interests are, but I imagine you would be in demand for work that can use an English speaker. This could involve businesses that do business with english-speaking countries, or work with English-speaking tourists. I'm sure there are a lot of possibilities.

[shane]

Yeah,janie,I have the same opinion whit you.You know that more and more people can speak English well in non-english speaking countries now .So English is just a tool of communicate with others .Therefore,every one who want to get a good job must study English well and choose one of other specialitise.
By the way,I wanna know where you are from please.

[janie]

Actually, I come from Taiwan, where the English departments focus primarily on literature training. From Odyssey to The Metamorphosis, we are quite familiar with those western literature. However, those can be misinterpreted as nonsense because they are good for nothing in our society. Your boss never wants you to translate Shakespeare' sonnet for his company. But if you are a teacher majored in English, your salaries can never compare to those native toughs, even though most of which do not study in English teaching. I confused. In Taiwan, graduating from prominent school is required to be one of the most important factors of being a successful teacher.

[shane]

yeah,
So, I have to say that every country and area has extramely different situation.You know I'm from the mainland of China.Therefore both we are from China(we have no need to argue the political issue about the mainland and Taiwan here),but we are facing the different condition.I had even said above many people can speak English well in the mainland .But you know there are more and more overseas companys come to China and invest here.So there is large quantity of requirement for the people who has good ability of English.Of course,if you were majoring in other subject,at the same time you studying English very well.
This kind of student is very popular in society.Especially the oral English is very importent.you know oral english is the most thing which Chinese students are not good at.So if you have a good ability of spoken English.you'll be more popular.
Gentleman,how about in Taiwan please?

[janie]

If I dedicate to be an outstand English teacher, what kind of skills does an English teacher better equip with? For example, they may know psychology or specific skills. Otherwise, as a non-native speaker and deficient in teaching experieces, I find no merit for me to be a good English teacher. One of my teachers who studied in MBA belittled the students majoring in English. He thinks whoever goes aboard can acquire language easily, why should we study English?

[LarryLatham]

Actually, I come from Taiwan, where the English departments focuse primarily on literature training. From Odyssey to The Metamorphasis, we are quite familiar with those western litertaures. However, those can be misinterpreted as nonsense because they are good for nothing in our society. Your boss never wants you to translate Shakespears' sonnet for his company.

I can understand and appreciate some of your frustration, Janie, but I feel real pain when I read these words of yours. It certainly is possible, as others have mentioned here (and as I'm sure you already knew) that your job prospects are enhanced wherever you might go by your ability to speak and read and write English as well as Mandarin. But way beyond that is the vastly expanded life experience you have available to you now. The mere fact that you've read Shakespeare, or Homer, or Kafka, is, in itself, a huge addition to your life, is it not? Actually, Homer wrote originally in Greek and Kafka in German (I believe, although he was a Czech, born in Prague), so you read English translations of their work. How many of your friends who are not English majors have read Shakespeare? Or any of the others? Any foreign language, if you achieve enough skill in it to permit you to communicate with native speakers of that language or read in the literature of that language is an enormous builder of the wonder of your life. Think about how much your whole view of the world is colored by your understanding of English! Could your grandmother even begin to comprehend what you know about the world, partly, at least, because of what you have studied in your English classes? Your knowledge of English gives you real opportunities to travel to many places in the world and communicate with local people--opportunities which would not be available to you if you only spoke Mandarin and Taiwanese. You even can reasonably think about maybe moving to, say, New York or London, or Sidney, or Toronto, and taking up a whole new lifestyle there.

So try to think about what your education in English does for you, rather than the restrictions that may apply to you if you think you want to teach English in Taiwan. But if you do want to teach English in Taiwan, there are opportunities there too, in the public school system. Foreign teachers do not teach there, only people like you.

I wish you the best, and hope that your mood improves. Trust me when I tell you that you have not wasted your time in studying as an English major.

Larry Latham
(One of those MBA English teachers who spent four wonderful years in Taipei. One of my best students there was an English literature major in college. She had a fantastic job as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Board of one of Taiwan's largest and most successful stock market investment firms, and she used English extensively every day on her job, communicating with people all over the world.)

[Sally Olsen]

Right on. I wonder Janie, if you have had the kind of formal English literature education that one of my profs calls, "The Cementary Model" (Ronald Tharp from Santa Cruz, USA). The students sit in rows with the teacher in front and read one at a time around the room, knowing which portion they wil read and practicing it until they have to read it so not listening to the story. Then there is a worksheet with translation or fill in the blanks and grammar exercises. No one ever actually thinks about the whole story or even parts of the story and tries to relate it to real life. These stories are "great works of art" because they are so meaningful and universal. They are stories that are taking place today. In Mongolia, one of my students struggled with the classic "Romeo and Juliet" situation of having her parents disapprove of her boyfriend because of his family and she ran away with him. Fortunately we had finshed the story and talked about Romeo and Juliet's choices and she saw that she could make other choices than suicide. One of the best English teachers in Greenland, Henning Jenson, suggested that you give students just three or four lines to read and have them tell it back to you - individually and personally so you know they understand - and keep doing that until you are sure they are getting the meaning from these words on the page. It helps to write your own stories and share them too and recognize their power in expressing meaning even if you don't dot the i's and cross the t's.

[janie]

Thank you! Larry Latham and Sally Olsen, you all made me realize that language is a magic itself, which is so powerful and embeds with numerous surprises, say, likes the sorting cap in Harry Potter. The certain magic you had already equipped, but the most important is how you use it and develop. I was lucky to learn this language, because I was inspired by those things in English that my grandma had never seen. Romeo and Juliet can also be one of our scenarios, and literature never dies if we can observe it and thus interpret our life. Indeed, the world always opens for people with the same believe. And I find this whole new world here.