''The book is on the table" is the reason why you don't know English.

The book is on the table: or is it really? Why so few Brazilians can speak English? Why YOU can't speak English?

Hi, everyone! As you may already know from following my blog, I am from Brazil and in this post, I will be sharing my views on the country's education system for learning foreign languages. Although I will be specifically discussing Brazil, I believe that this article can be helpful for people from all countries.

Meanwhile, many foreigners may be thinking at this exact moment that Brazilians speak Spanish as their second language. However, here in Brazil, we are often locked into our Portuguese bubble, unable to speak even the most famous language in the world: English, let alone Spanish.

That is fair. Perhaps some people think that Brazilians are like Americans, who have no interest in learning any language other than their own. And while there are certainly Brazilians who react defensively to suggestions that they learn another language and who believe that all tourists should speak Portuguese when they come to Brazil, I would say that most of the youth in Brazil want to learn English. They know it is good for their careers or at the very least they think it would be fun to be bilingual. So if everybody wants to learn English, why can't so many actually speak it?

When I was in Brazil, my younger sister's friends discovered that I could speak English and after that I became somewhat of a celebrity to them. They kept asking me to translate phrases and speak English, which was amusing at first but sometimes annoying. However, one of my sister's friends said something that stuck with me. He said, 'Please talk about anything in English, but don't say things like "the book is on the table" or the names of colors or animals because we already know those.' This request caught my attention because it reminded me that it is true that 'the book is on the table' (in English) is a common, almost meme-like phrase that we have in Brazil, and that most Brazilians actually know some words and phrases in English, as we can see in this YouTube video where this popular youtuber goes around testing Brazilians' basic English knowledge that they can learn in school.

But the question here is, if many Brazilians already know many phrases in English that they pick up from school, playing video games, or watching series, what is holding us back from the final leap of using those words to make simple conversational sentences? Why is it that when a tourist comes to the country, few people can help them when they need basic directions or when they need to order something in a restaurant? It's like our schools never focus on the fundamental parts of a language that can be utilized in the real world. It's great that we learn all the colors in English from blue to magenta, but why is it so difficult to teach students to say "How are you?" which is undoubtedly a simpler sentence than "The book is on the table".

In fact, I was like this too. I would always memorize many phrases in English for years that wouldn't be very useful in real life, instead of gathering better conversational knowledge. Also, I do remember studying some of the conversational sentences here and there in my English class at my public high school (in summary, poor kids go to public schools, rich kids go to private schools), but they were never the focus of the classes. Instead, the verb 'to be' was, and nobody would properly learn the verb 'to be' because, in the end of the day, it was just a bunch of grammar that was not tied up to any type of memorable and useful meaning. So our brain just does what it does best to useless information: it erases it.

I'm not saying that studying grammar is completly useless, but if grammar is all you learn, then nothing will come out of it. But to me, it's kind of obvious why they focus on grammar - it's easier for teachers who don't know much English themselves to teach that to their students. You don't need to be fluent in a language to learn that you use "is" for "she" and "are" for "you," but you need some degree of knowledge to be able to express yourself in a language and to teach conversations to your students.

So why doesn't the government invest more resources into English language training for their teachers, so that they can actually speak English and transfer their knowledge effectively to their students? We need to address the root of the problem in our education system. If nobody in the classroom is learning, perhaps it's not the students' fault. Since the government already offers free further education for university teachers, why not extend the same opportunity to English teachers in public schools?

Now, do you get the idea? If you want to learn a language, you should focus on the useful parts of it because, for the most part, languages are tools for communication in the real world. This is where some courses on Duolingo fall short. In some Duolingo courses like the Spanish one, you learn to say "hi" early on, but in others, you might spend a long time learning sentences like "the cat eats." While I understand that they are trying to teach grammar, we should do better than that and provide more useful sentences from the get go.

If you focus on conversational English, people would actually have the opportunity to utilize their English in the real world and learn with other people in an organic way. The Norwegian family of my boyfriend doesn't know perfect English, but they know basic conversational English, and that alone is enough for us to communicate just fine and teach each other English or Norwegian. Remember, languages are made for communication and interaction!

Alrighty, it's time for me to wrap things up, but before I go, I just wanted to say thank you all for tuning in! It's been a pleasure chatting with you. If you enjoyed our time together, I'd be thrilled if you could do me a favor and subscribe to my blog. And if you're feeling extra generous, feel free to leave a comment too! Your support means the world to me, and it helps keep me motivated to keep writing and sharing my thoughts with you all. Take care and have a great day!