English language in Chile

In a globalized world whose country of greatest influence is United States, I think is necessary to learn English because we can connect and talk with people of the entire world.

But I think is an error the importance of English in schools. With the need to entry in this globalized world, the governments boost English programs and they don’t care about other cultures in Chile and their languages.

One iconic example is the Mapuche culture and Mapudungun. The Mapudungun is a beautiful language that is ingrained in the self knowledge and in connection with the nature. But the Chilean governments prefer the English language.

And how many people who learned English in school really use that language? Probably a minor part, and, I think, most of them became from rich schools.  I have an example for that. When I was a child I was in one of that rich schools. There I learned all I know about English today. For the other side, in my adolescence I went to a lyceum that goes people from different social origins. There the English class was very bad, I didn’t learn anything much that I learned before.

The social difference is even in the teaching of English language. The rich people can enter in this globalized world as opposed to poor people.