Well, it now appears that many sectors of the economy are finally waking up to the need for English, what with the Confederations Cup this year and the World Cup next year. Besides taxi drivers, hotel employees and restaurant staff, it is the turn of somewhat less obvious professional categories, like the prostitutes in Belo Horizonte, to learn their "survival English". I'm even thinking about creating a glossary.

Veja magazine and the "Jobs and Careers" supplement of the "Estado de São Paulo" newspaper recently carried good articles about the whole question of English language teaching/learning in Brazil. I also recently read an interesting comment by another English teacher and blogger who referred to English language schools as his sworn enemies, saying that they are only interested in charging too much for a service of questionable quality, showing little concern for the students, their progress and so on. I feel it takes all sorts, and like interpreting and translation, you get what you pay for. Someone once said that you can have something done quickly, cheaply and well, but never all three at the same time. One of the three will always be sacrificed. And as their is an old addage: "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys." There is no miracle solution, which is why the translation market in Brazil is so price-elastic. You see, those who quote translation work are quite often the same people who quote for office material or whatever. To them it's just another "insumo" (Portuguese for 'input'). Even today, with few exceptions, there is still little understanding of the skill and the work involved in producing top-quality translations, yet the agencies are fighting a tooth-and-nail war to get/hold on to their customers. And when prices begin to dictate the rules of the game, quality gets sacrificed on the altar of saving a few Reais.

In the case of English language teaching I am always wary of claims like "English in 18 months" and sometimes even less. Also, I often ask myself whether companies that invest in English language courses for their employees actually monitor the return on their investment. There are consultants who provide a good service here, but I am convinced that many companies treat this like a "fire and forget" missile. The employee is entitled to a course, so he gets one. And of course, when the company's finances get squeezed in hard times, one of the first victims of the cuts is English classes. Once again because corporate myopia sees this kind of spending as  an expense, rather than an investment. I've lost account of the number of students I've met whose experience of English language classes has been "stop-go-stop-go" throughout their career. And I could go on all day, but I'll be back soon with other ideas.