[etni] Fw: English as a status thing

From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 13:20:32 +0200

----- Original Message ----- From: "Esther Revivo" <estherrv@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: English as a status thing

Adele wrote :

I have a feeling that there is also a status thing going on here
- the status of the English language, as opposed to the Russian
language - in Israel, as well as throughout the world."

28 years ago during my first year of teaching I asked the former supervisor, Pinchas Bechler ז'ל why on earth my מסמ'ר and מסמ'ם girls in Kiryat Hachinuch Azata must learn English when there is absolutely no chance of most of them passing even the one point exam. He answered that learning English in Israel is a status thing, and parents would be up in arms if their children were denied the opportunity of learning it.

I would go so far as to say that in my opinion there is an
exagerated emphasis put on English usage especially at
Universities and Colleges. For example, I have a former pupil
from a neighboring Moshav that dreamed of being a music
teacher in kindergartens-- one of those lovely ladies who gives
out tambourines and teaches the kiddies songs. Well, she tried
unsuccessfully at least 5 times to pass the 4 point Bagrut so to
get accepted at a college and ended up earning minimum wage
at a supermarket.
Why in heavens should she have needed English? So that some
puffed up professor could give out an excrutiatingly difficult article
in English when one probably just as good is available in Hebrew?
She played 5 instruments and loved children!!!!

I have 10 brothers and sisters-in-law who among other things: teach
at a University with a doctorate in Chemistry; work as a lawyer;
an accountant; an economist who is head of a corporation; a nurse
heading an important ICU unit; the head of an entire אגף in a prison
up north; etc. etc. As the American sister in law holding a Masters,
it was my pleasure to help them all years ago translate various articles.
Believe me, 90% of the American public would have been unable to
comprehend the esoteric articles they had to deal with. Only
University academics abroad could have dealt with those articles.
I felt then and still believe that while giving articles in English is
doubtless  important in some cases, in many other cases, the
professor does so as a "status thing" and not necessarily
because it is crucial to the students studies.

Esther Revivo

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[etni] Fw: English as a status thing

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