| That is a huge generalization. The developers that are closest to me all have English proficiency to some degree. But that's a biased sample, so I am inclined to agree with the statement. As a brazilian, I am not sure why that is, but I can make some guesses: - Public education sucks (at least before you get to the university level) so we can just disregard that. - Top private schools are outstanding. There's a lot of competition to get in the public universities, so the competition is fierce, among students and schools. However, that doesn't apply to English at all. They'll teach the english text comprehension skills required to get into a university and nothing more. I am sure there are exceptions, but that seems to be the rule. - Private English courses range from terrible to great. There are several reasons for that, but that difference is not always reflected in their cost and it is not trivial to tell them apart. It usually takes several years to get from zero to a level where the student can talk to a native speaker. It is entirely possible for someone to enroll in a Comp. Sci course and an English one at the same time, and finish Comp. Sci, while being halfway through the English one. I am not sure how that compares to the rest of the world. But the perception is that learning English takes a lot of effort, and "I'm already employed, so why bother?". The issue here obviously is that it shouldn't take that much time - we are not interested in fluency here - but if it did, then the opportunity cost would be too high indeed. People only start taking English seriously when they get outside offers (which they fail to qualify), or start working for a company with foreign clients. By then, it is too late. The advice I give to everyone is to make English the number one priority, but don't bother too much with formal schools. Things like movies, CNN and online games (with VOIP) can teach you the basics much faster. And most importantly, train the ears to recognize English phonemes. After that, you can get a teacher/institution to fill in the gaps. That saves a lot of time, because you'll rank much higher in placement tests, shaving whole years of slow learning. As for the new site, I believe it will become an island of people that are unwilling to learn English. I am not sure what that says about their willingness to learn anything else... |