Teach English in Lǚxiang Zhen - Shanghai Shi

english for Specific PurposesIt is my firm belief that communication by means of a common language may hold the key to a necessarily better communication on international work sites across our globe. I do not believe anything could alleviate the primary confusions that exist amongst multi lingual misunderstandings better than the orderly, careful use and understanding by the widespread adoption and use of a single, common language. I want to lead with that thought because I believe the widespread use of a common, expressive language may be one of the unintended positive outcomes of the increasing number of english language that I have been observing over the past 10 years. I see advertisements for TEFL, TESOL, ESL and a veritable alphabet soup of english focused language programs and varied certification strategies. They are on-line, in book, and on video. english Teaching programs seem more popular than ever. I feel this holds great promise for better communication in general, especially in areas of commerce, and even at our international work sites. As odd as that seems at first glance. In the past, I worked in many foreign nations. My work was generally technical in nature and I was usually working with non english-speakers. I worked in close coordination with, and needed to convey my mechanical diagnoses and proposed fixes to a similarly (technically & mechanically) educated group of Technicians and Engineers. What happens when we reach a point when we have no common language to resolve an engineering difficulty on an expensive project that absolutely needs to be resolved? When we have no common language, we resort to gyrations and mime-like motions that would make a dervish proud. Page 2 Technical/Engineering workers attempt to communicate an idea without knowing a common language a lot more often than is generally appreciated. We will often suggest a fix to an engineering system that has proven itself poorly designed by twisting an arm backwards, combined with unfathomable finger pointing and upward peering motions. These moves are often accompanied by our acting as if were walking in a stooping crouch, exaggerating (for effect), the pretended lifting of a very heavy and imaginary (invisible) object. All of this might cause anyone watching to think we were a group of wildly over-caffeinated, frighteningly angry group of drunken deaf mutes, struggling for freedom from a shared hallucination. Truth is, most times, in our oft misunderstood gesturing, we know exactly what we are attempting to convey to our mechanically creative brothersit is the language of speech that frustrates the easy communication towards a creative solution here. We resolve many perplexing engineering problems and oftentimes actually conspire to create (dare I say) invent a creative and one-of-a-kind previously unimagined solution to a perplexing engineering difficulty. At which time, there is a genuine, proud sharing of the brilliant solution by all participants, who moments before were apparent candidates for strait-jacket constraint systems. We had in fact, communicated some complex ideas. We had conceived an idea, agreed with an upward roll of the eyes and a joyously shared palms up. The Answer to a daunting engineering problem, without speech. It was obvious all along, we just needed to see it, and agree. Page 3 Now, fast forward to a similar group of stymied Engineers and Mechanical Technicians confronted with a seemingly impossible engineering challenge, but who are able to speak a common language and understand the meanings of the words for torque, steel plate, chain hoist, wheeled trolley, welded joint. .and you may see what Im getting at here. I see promise in the idea. I feel there is a place for an ESP (english for specific purposes) course formation tailored for the Technical Trades and skilled blue-collared workers of this world. I intend to practice teaching english. I hope then to move into a specialized form of teaching english skills to Mechanical Engineers, Construction workers, Automotive Technicians, and other foreign language-speaking tradesmen. An english specialty course for teaching specific audiences to correctly form sentences and pronounce words, use verb forms correctly, identify and name tools, and communicate in the most efficient way with their foreign co-workers would be brilliant.