Lesson 5: Let’s become skilled workforce

“Today there are many jobs where you need English. This is because the world has
become smaller. Vast distances are shortened by speedy transport. We can talk to a
person thousands of kilometres away on the phone or the Internet. So we can
communicate with the whole world easily. English has made this communication
easier.
There are many countries in the world with many languages, but to communicate
with them, you cannot speak all the languages. So you need a common language that
you can use with more or less all the people in the world. English is that common
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language. You can talk to a Chinese toy maker, a French artist, an Arab ambassador
or a Korean builder in one language —English.
English for us in Bangladesh is all the more important. As we have seen earlier, we
are too many people in a small country. So if you learn English, you have the best
opportunity to find a good job, both within and outside the country. And that is good
news for millions of our unemployed youths.”
“But Miss, we learn English for 12 or 14 years, yet we do not find good jobs, “ says
Rumi. She then tells the class about what happened to her brother. “Could you please
tell us why?” Rumi asks.
“This is a very important question, Rumi. We should learn how to use English both
orally and in writing for doing things as needed in our work, such as communicating
with others at personal, social, national and international levels. But unfortunately, at
the moment we are learning English mainly for our exams,” continues Miss
Choudhury. “Remember, English can greatly help you become skilled workforce.”
“But where and how can we learn this kind of English, Miss?” asks Ratan. Ms
Choudhury says, “We can learn this communicative English both in and outside the
classroom. Side by side with your textbook, the radio, television, newspapers,
magazines, computers and other supplementary materials will greatly help you. And
during our classroom activities, we’ll see how we can learn this English.”