SSC English First Paper | Unit: 4, Lesson 5 | Are We Aware? | Let’s become skilled workforce

A. In groups discuss the following question and give your opinion to the whole class: Why should we learn English?

B. Read the conversation between Ratan and Rumi to find out about the importance of English.

Rumi: You remember my brother Raihan, don’t you? He applied for a front desk job in a 5-star hotel.

Ratan: What happened? Has he got the job?

Rumi: No! He couldn’t answer most of the questions in the interview. 

Ratan: Why? He did well in the HSC, didn’t he?

Rumi: Yes, he did. But the recruiting officer in the interview asked him questions in English and he couldn’t understand most of them.

Ratan: Sorry, but I have a different story to tell you. My cousin Sheela did her HSC from a college in Mymensingh. She couldn’t do as well as Raihan in her exams, but she got a job as a crew member in Biman Bangladesh. She said she had answered all the questions in English both in her written test and interview.

Rumi: Great! She must be good in English. Well, then the key to getting some jobs is English, isn’t it?

Ratan: Yes, you’re right.

C. Discuss in groups.

1 Try to find out why English is needed for a good hotel front desk job and a flight crew member.

2 Choose two / three other jobs where English is needed and write why and how English is used in those jobs.

D. Read what Ms Choudhury says to her students about learning English.

“Today there are many jobs where you need English. This is because the world has become smaller. Vast distances are shortened by speedy transports. We can talk to a person thousands of kilometers away on the phone or the Internet. So we can communicate with the whole world easily. English has made this communication easier.

There are many countries in the world with many languages, but to communicate with them, you cannot use all the languages. So you need a common language that you can use with more or less all the people in the world. English is that common language. You can talk to a Chinese toy maker, a French artist, an Arab ambassador or a Korean builder in one language-English.

English for us in Bangladesh is all the more important. As we have seen earlier, we are too many people in a small country. So if you leam English, you have the best opportunity to find a good job, both within and outside the country. And that is good news for millions of our unemployed youths.”

“But Miss, we learn English for 12 or 14 years, yet we do not find good jobs, ” says Rumi. She then tells the class about what happened to her brother. “Could you please tell us why?” Rumi asks.

“This is a very important question, Rumi. We should learn how to use English both orally and in writing for doing things as needed in our work, such as communicating with others at personal, social, national and international levels. But unfortunately, at the moment we are learning English mainly for our exams,” continues Ms Choudhury. “Remember, English can greatly help you become skilled workers.”

“But where and how can we learn this kind of English, Miss?” asks Ratan. Ms Choudhury says, “We can learn English both in and outside the classroom. Besides your textbooks, the radio, television, newspapers, magazines, computers and other supplementary materials will greatly help you. During our classroom activities, we’ll see how we can learn English.”

E. Write a paragraph by rearranging the following sentences or sentence parts.

1 You can learn a common language in and outside the classroom.

2 You cannot speak all the languages of different people of different

countries to communicate with them.

3 For example, you can do businesses with a Chinese, a Japanese, a

French, an Arab or a Nigerian if you know English.

4 Also other things like the radio, TV, computers and newspapers can

help you learn English.

5 Therefore you need a common language, i.e. English, which is

understood by people more or less all over the world. 

F. Discuss in groups and write answers to these questions.

1 Describe briefly the things that have made the present world smaller.

2 Give reasons why a common language is needed in today’s world.

3 Why is English needed all the more in Bangladesh?

4 How can our youths become a skilled workforce?