# Not learning English in school



## Guest (Apr 6, 2011)

I read Kimonas answer about Chiropodist and found something very interesting.

He writes that many young Cypriots now choose to not learn english in school since its not obligatory anymore.

This must be to shoot yourself in the foot. Whatever reason there is to make this choise they can be aware of what the result will be. 

English is what I think whole rest of Europe teach as first foreign language.

English is the business language in most of the world. Exept South America that use Spanish.

Even China and Russia use English when they communicate with foreigners.

What do they learn instead? Because I dont think Greek is very useful to know outside Cyprus and Greece.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Vegaanders said:


> I read Kimonas answer about Chiropodist and found something very interesting.
> 
> He writes that many young Cypriots now choose to not learn english in school since its not obligatory anymore.
> 
> ...



I have often said exactly the same thing Anders. Also they want people to move to their country and bring their money with them and most Euopeans speak English but very few will speak Greek.
It makes no sense at all for Cypriots not to learn English.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

Maybe a lot of kids expect to take over parents job and study in Greece. That said I would be very surprised if they don't take English as a second language, they would be in the minority I suspect if they didn't.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

zin said:


> Maybe a lot of kids expect to take over parents job and study in Greece. That said I would be very surprised if they don't take English as a second language, they would be in the minority I suspect if they didn't.


Actually I h ave noticed that very few of t he young teenagers around me speak English. They come knocking on my door at Christmas for carol singing and on Halloween plus at carnival with their costumes on. They expect me to give them money but they don't speak a word of English. now I know I should not expect them to and I do of course speak to them in my Terrible Greek but it does show that what Kimonas says is right. The youngster just do not learn English anymore.
Of course one reason is because in the past they all went to England to universities so they had to learn English in order to do that but now they have their own universities.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

I was always under the impression they start learning English around the age of 14 onwards, would be interesting to find out actually.


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2011)

To start when they are 14 is very late in my opinion. In Sweden where i come from English lessons start when the children are 9 years old. Already when I went to school, and that is many years ago we started with english when you were 11.

As Veronica said it make no sense. There will never be greek speaking tourists enough for Cyprus to survive. It will always be dependent on foreigners from other countries. Of course many russians come now but russian is much harder to learn, believe me I have tried

Anders


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Vegaanders said:


> To start when they are 14 is very late in my opinion. In Sweden where i come from English lessons start when the children are 9 years old. Already when I went to school, and that is many years ago we started with english when you were 11.
> 
> As Veronica said it make no sense. There will never be greek speaking tourists enough for Cyprus to survive. It will always be dependent on foreigners from other countries. Of course many russians come now but russian is much harder to learn, believe me I have tried
> 
> Anders


And the Russians dont speak Greek on the whole but some of them do speak English. Most developers have a russian speaking person to deal with clients from Russia. One of the developers we sometimes work with has offered us the use of their Russian speaking lady if we ever need anyone
However we dont target the Russian market, they are a nightmare to deal with.


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2011)

Hehe, you have to take lessons from my wife


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Vegaanders said:


> Hehe, you have to take lessons from my wife


Russian lessons or lessons on how to deal with nightmare Russians


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

We'll have to recruit her to help us with Russian clients:clap2::clap2:


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2011)

I am sure she will be easy to recrute


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

I am very surprised with this threat! I have to say I did not see Kimonas post but from what I know it's going in a completely different dirrection. I have found out from the Ministry of Education that kids will start learning English from the 1st grade of school rather than 3rd starting in September. Now if later on in high school if they have the option to take a different language rather than English that is a different story (and one that would make perfect sense in my opinion) The reason it makes sense is that about 90% of kids take English in private afternoon lessons and far more advanced than what they can teach them at school.

As for the carolers Veronica, I doubt very much if they are Cypriot kids. At least in my neeighborhood Cypriot kids no longer do that. We get a Pakistani student who always comes around and then the other groups of new immigrants.


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## kimonas (Jul 19, 2008)

theresoon said:


> I am very surprised with this threat! I have to say I did not see Kimonas post but from what I know it's going in a completely different dirrection. I have found out from the Ministry of Education that kids will start learning English from the 1st grade of school rather than 3rd starting in September. Now if later on in high school if they have the option to take a different language rather than English that is a different story (and one that would make perfect sense in my opinion) The reason it makes sense is that about 90% of kids take English in private afternoon lessons and far more advanced than what they can teach them at school.
> 
> As for the carolers Veronica, I doubt very much if they are Cypriot kids. At least in my neeighborhood Cypriot kids no longer do that. We get a Pakistani student who always comes around and then the other groups of new immigrants.


I'd better step in here for clarification as the original comment has been taken out of context. Theresoon has already made the clarification - English is taught in state schools but becomes optional during high school at more advanced level. In my professional and private life I have found that English speaking is in serious decline. Even candidates presenting themselves for interview with PhDs from UK institutions often have very poor communication skills in English (which perhaps says more about declining standards in the UK HE sector). Certainly colleagues teaching English medium courses constantly complain that their Cypriot students are unable to communicate in English and are forced to provide Greek translations (which causes complaints from international students who then feel disenfranchised) - I also noticed when teaching in prestigious private schools that are advertised as English Medium invariably taught, in everyday practice, in Greek.
Private english tuition is also in decline as the target for many now is Greek medium HE at the State University. I attended a conference there recently and was surprised that the students on campus could not comminicate (or perhaps would not) in English, whereas the older generation porters and groundsmen had no problem giving directions etc. There may be a nationalistic element to this - my nephew who is 17 cannot communicate at all in English, and supports a far right football team - whilst his sister a few years his senior speaks perfect English and holds more moderate political views.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Dina the carol singers were definitely Cypriot kids. I know them from the neighbourhood. They usually greet me in Greek when I pass them and I respond to them in Greek.
I personally do not think it should be incumbent on Cypriots to learn English but that we should make more effort to learn Greek. However, as has been said on this thread, by not learning Engish the Cypriots make it more difficult for themselves in the international business fields.


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## Guest (Apr 7, 2011)

Its really very simple. If Cyprus want to be a successful tourist destination the people who work in that industri must be able to communicate with the tourists. If they are not the tourists will choose other destinations in the world.

But ofc if you choose to live as expat in Cyprus you should at least try to learn the locale language because the people you meet and do business with is mostly not the same people as the tourists meet

This is nothing that is unique for Cyprus. As an expat in Germany you cant get a unlimited permission to stay if you have not passed the exams in German language and history. And most dealings with the authorities must be done in German, they either dont understand or refuse to talk any other language than German. Even when I came to the migration office they could only speak German. And that in a country where 23 million of the 90 million population have foreign backround


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