“One of the big moments in the spread of English took place in India in 1835. [British politician] Thomas Babington Macaulay proposed that English be used to create a class of Indian middlemen who would be sympathetic to British interests, without the necessity of large numbers of British citizens coming out and running the show” (Traves 102). As you can see, English has impacted different cultures over the years. As English continues to grow over time, English has become a way to communicate with foreigners to gain business. However, it can be a way to have less cultural differences. In the article, ‘The Church of Please and Thank You’ by Julie Traves, it talks about how EFL (English as a foreign language) …show more content…
Lee, born in China, but raised in Canada, is an English teacher in China. Once Lee moved to Hong Kong and got a job as a teacher, Lee questions about “why is China pushing English so hard? [My students] get the sense that their own language is not good enough… what was wrong with the way it was before? Why do we have to be Western to be competitive in business?” (Traves 104). The teacher’s questions, give the tone of confusion and aggravation as to why it is important to learn English. The quote gives the audience what the teacher is feeling for her students and the hardship that they have gone through. In addition, when Michelle Szabo was asked about her students’ test scores, she said that “some saraiiman (salarymen) were so excited they trembled when they took her hand” (Traves 101). “Were so excited they trembled” shows the emotions of how learning English puts someone at a high hierarchy and the students, getting a high score, puts them in a favorable position. Learning English is a way for the students to show off about his or her skills. Using teachers’ and students’ experience shows the emotions of the difficulty that learning English is putting the students’ through. There’s a reason as to why learning English must be valuable in different