Nowadays, more and more people engage in an intellectual discourse about the essence of learning English at school, while others overlook the risk of dying out local languages. Both assumptions have pros and cons, so they have legitimacy.
On one hand, to look through the ancient times, English has always been widely spread language in the world among Chinese, Spanish and French. This tendency not only set the course of its importance but also made English the most relevant language, specifically in the decade we live in. Nowadays, English became an international language and is used as a powerful tool for communication, trading goods, travel and just keep up the pace of a dynamic changes. Moreover, high-level language skills became vital step for a successful buildup of a carreer. Recruters may reject academically excelent, highly experienced candidates only because of lacking English skills, that is highly demanding at current times.
On the other hand, to outline contrarguments against learning English at school, the threat of local languages extinction is definetely considerable and topical. It faces the risk of globalisation by losing unique cultural heritage and diversity each language holds. Besides that, school years are stressful for children especially early ones and language exams, that are part of a learning process, can exert pernicious influence on children.
To sum up, I am a huge supporter of studying various languages at school, as I believe, that knowing languages defines mind set and broadens perspectives and makes communication easier. It is a chance to see the world with a new, fresh perspective, effectively building relationships, dive deep in diverse cultures, and broaden perception by large. There is only one “but” – learning new languages should not exclude learning local ones as every language is unique and equally important to know. I will recall a famous quote – you are as many human as many language you know.