7 October 2021

Investing Your English Skills Has More Benefits Than Investing Your Money

Thu, 7 October 2021 Read 1x Artikel

Farrell Mareta Jap, Grade: 10, School: Al Irsyad Al Islamiyyah Highschool

People say that in this modern era, English is one of the most important skills that we should have. People talk about how English affects our future as well, but still, some people say that English is not necessary, and they think that English is just a subject in school that every student needs to pursue.

English is the global language. As demonstrated by Shaik Riyaz Ahmad in the journal titled Importance of English Communication Skills, he said that English has a status of a second language in almost all the countries where it is not the first language. It means that almost half the population in the world speaks or at least understands English. However, numerous people in our country especially people around me still have not recognized that English is necessary.

Based on the data of English First – English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) in 2020, it showed that Indonesia ranked 74 out of 100 countries or regions in terms of English and ranked 15 out of 24 in Asia which means we considered as the low proficiency in terms of English.

I did real-time research in my school and discovered that student in my school that can speak or understand English is less than a half student. Due to this, we can conclude from both perspectives that most people (especially students) do not think that English is necessary. Whereas English is that necessary.

Some people consider English is not necessary since they did not acquire the proper resources to learn English. Many people did not acquire the proper education too. How could they get a proper English resource when they do not know how to get a proper English education? The government needs to assure that every people in the country have gotten the proper English education. For example, the government could promote the place called “Kampung Inggris” which is located in many places in Indonesia more since it has the proper English education that every people should have.

In addition, people that do not willing to take in English as a subject that they should take, they will be outdated, and they might not have a good perception as the people who mastered English as well since many articles, news, journal, and others are in English. It is important for us as a young generation to not be outdated and understand issues that are happening right now in this world.

Other than that, some people have good English skills, but they refuse to speak in English because they are afraid of mistakes that they are going to make. Whereas mistakes are fine, we are all learning. They do not have to be afraid of mistakes because we must make mistakes to improve our English.

We as a young generation and the next generation that will rule our country must master English as it is crucial to have an English skill in order to prepare our future. There are many benefits of learning English that is valuable for our future as in:

We could take more insight and knowledge. We frequently found an article that is written in English, so in order to understand what the point of the article is, we need to understand English. If we already had the skill, we could easily read the article. We need to understand the article for knowing what issues are happening in this world since we are the future generation.
We may well study abroad. In most countries in the world that have English as their native languages like UK, USA, Australia, and others, it is important to take English tests to apply to the universities. In order to obtain more experience by study abroad, we need to learn English.
We could easily adapt to every country. As we know, our generation loves traveling. We recognize that English is the global language, and it is easier for us to travel anywhere we want if we already mastered English.
Job opportunity. At this present time, most companies that are international or have a high wage searched for people who could be able to speak or fluent in English. People who could be able to speak English or have good skills in English may have a better career since English is a global language and some companies need to enhance their company engagement on an international scale. English skills also could increase your status in a company. So, for people who want a high wage, it is important to learn English.
Participation in various conferences or organizations with people around the world. For example, there is MUN (Modal United Nations) where students could learn about diplomacy, international relations, and united nations. Those who want to enlarge their horizon and who want to empower themselves could join MUN and of course, it needs English skills.

As the young generation, we need English skills to attain the benefits of learning English. There are various methods to learn English to increase our English skills such as reading English books for our reading skills, listening to podcast or watching movies to increase our listening skills, speak more English to every people or perhaps look for a native speaker so that we could be used to speak and do not be shy or afraid of mistakes.

Furthermore, we also could help the other people who could not have good resources and lack education by teaching them and perhaps in this digital era, we could use our platform to make good English content, such as YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, or we could make a podcast on Spotify for them to listen.

So, is English important for our future? The answer is yes, it is. It is affecting our future. English is indeed affecting us as a young generation to have success and a bright future. We have known that almost all technology in this era is in English and that makes us learn English. We need to realize that we could have a good education by studying in another country and that needs an English skill. People who get good education could be able to make changes or make innovations to the country.

People that could not get the proper English education still have the chance to have a bright future. But the government should solve the problem of the unequal English education system by providing a great English teacher, supporting the place “Kampung Inggris”, and also the government could buy or give funds for English books so they could learn better and have good English skills.

In summary, English skill is affecting our future and have a significant role in our life. We as the young generation could participate by learning English well, use the social media platform to enhance and make good English content, and we could teach people who do not have the proper English resources by using our social media platform so that they have good English skills. We could provide them with an English course as well and we could make funds for them to buy English books so they can increase their English skills.

Saya generasi muda yang peduli literasi! Artikel ini ditulis sebagai bentuk serta EF Literacy Day Competition 2021: https://www.ef.co.id/writing-competition

Resources:

Ahmad, Shaik Riyaz (2016). Importance of English Communication Skills. International Journal of Applied Research 2016; 2(3): 478-480 https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2016/vol2issue3/PartH/2-3-47.pdf

English First – English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) 2020

https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/regions/asia/indonesia/