FOREIGN LANGUAGES/YOUR CAREERS/MY BLOG!

A penfriend of mine who eaches at the Ural State Pedagogical University, Institute of Foreign Languages in Yekaterinenburg, Russia

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~geissler/Ural State Pedagogical University.htm

has asked me to write her a paper for their conference they are holding about the importance of the knowledge of foreign languages in our careers and about the means by which

professional language skills can be obtained through self-study and in what way I integrate the material I publish on my blog into my lessons.

It would also be intersting for me to hear your, the readers, opinion on this topic!

Here below is the part of the report  where I write about the importance  of  language knowledge  for us here in Switzerland because on my blog you can find enough

ideas of how to achieve the goal by self-learning.

2.Why is the knowledge of a foreign language important for your/our career?:

In Switzerland we have 4 national languages or  more precisely German, French, Italian and Romantsch.

Beyond that approx.25% of the inhabitants are foreigners in our country .This shows very quickly how important languages are in order to communicate with one another and,

of course, to understand the cultures of the others better.

To acquire language knowledge belongs to our everyday life. People who work for banks or at international companies, in general, or for  travel agencies wouldn’t have any chances

to get a job without this knowledge. The languages represent our „natural resources“ which we do not possess.

In our globalized world languages have become more and more important. Only through communication and comprehension of the other can  we improve the world or at least avoid many misunderstandings. Imagine also that you go on a trip to a foreign country and what use this is if you can’t even speak to the people there!

I teach English and German at an international company and for some of the employees the knowledge of these languages is a must.

Besides this, I teach the above mentioned languages to people who work for the security services and for them too, the languages are essential in their jobs because of the many contacts they

have with tourists or partners.

On this video I’m explaining why I set up a blog and why I think it is useful for adult learner/students, also for those who study on their own because I give answers to questions or explain or

translate vocabulary.

Here the video you aksed me to prepare; I’m, of course, not a movie star, but I hope it will give some hints of why I do this work here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONxpI-TCgyI

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES, posted with vodpod

Downlaodable report about “ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES ” ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Included you can read a compostion in this sense by one of my students.