Everyone is taught English at school nowadays, but this is considered more important than teaching local languages. If people don’t study them, they can fade away and be completely forgotten. I believe that English is a fundamental subject to learn so as to develop communication skills worldwide. However, it is also important to protect local languages, as they are essential to communicate in people’s hometowns or home country countries.
English is a very important subject to study. In fact, students learn it from elementary school. One of the main reasons why English is such so important is that it is considered as a language known by everyone around the world, so if someone needs to talk with a foreign person but does not know his language, they can communicate anyway by speaking English and be sure to understand each other. For instance, a student goes to Berlin on holidays and, although he isn’t able to speak German, he can talk to local people by using English and he will be understood with no problem.
However, we have to consider that we live in our own country, not abroad, so we are more likely to speak in our mother-tongue language, mother tongue rather than in English. As a consequence, it is equally important to study and master our local language. A person living in Italy, for example, will spend most of his time speaking in Italian, or in Italian dialects too, to communicate with other citizens, so it is essential to know these languages perfectly. A way to ensure that local languages can survive, could be that to improve the way they are taught in schools and to provide more competent teachers. In fact, teachers are the most responsible for students’ knowledge and if they don’t teach local languages properly, that is their fault. They could, for example, propose more practical lessons, where students can practise practice the language by speaking to their classmates.
To conclude, despite English being an essential subject for students’ skills, it is not more important than other ones, like local languages, as they are essential in people’s daily communication, and they need to be taught as well. More practical lessons could be a solution to ensure their survival.
