I was recently on a panel discussion on Mandarin TV here in Vancouver. The subject was immigration. I made the point that language is key to work place success for immigrants.
My counterparts was a Chinese immigration lawyer who said that that is an unrealistic expectation. He felt that the mainstream employers use the requirements that immigrants speak good English and be able to interact effectively with locals as a means of putting down the immigrants. According to him it takes 40 years to learn to speak English well.
My experience is that those who do not apply themselves very early to getting their English up to speed, soon lose interest and never really try. I also feel that anyone who lives in an English speaking city like Vancouver and attends a government sponsored language course will probably never learn to speak properly. Only those who independently seek out the language through TV, books, newspapers and local contacts as well as committed self-study, will ever progress. In other words the schools are a substitute for the autonomous learning process that is the only road to effective fluency. Any comments?
My counterparts was a Chinese immigration lawyer who said that that is an unrealistic expectation. He felt that the mainstream employers use the requirements that immigrants speak good English and be able to interact effectively with locals as a means of putting down the immigrants. According to him it takes 40 years to learn to speak English well.
My experience is that those who do not apply themselves very early to getting their English up to speed, soon lose interest and never really try. I also feel that anyone who lives in an English speaking city like Vancouver and attends a government sponsored language course will probably never learn to speak properly. Only those who independently seek out the language through TV, books, newspapers and local contacts as well as committed self-study, will ever progress. In other words the schools are a substitute for the autonomous learning process that is the only road to effective fluency. Any comments?