Among students from public schools in Brazil we have a joke about how English is taught to us. That’s because we all have the impression that from the first to the last year of primary and secondary school we have English classes about the ‘to be’ verb. In 2016, this idea was explored in an advertisement from the English school CNA. You can watch it by clicking this link (it is in Portuguese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuxtgc1BpBs. At the beginning of the video you see two women making a cake, one young and one old, the granddaughter and its grandma. Then, the grandma asks “How was your English class, my dear?”.  And the granddaughter says “You know grandma, my teacher started talking about the ‘to be’ verb and…” at this moment her face falls down over the cake in front of her and she immediately starts snoring as if just remembering her classes was boring enough to make her fall asleep.

That’s why in Brazil people pay for English classes in language schools. We spent nine years at what we call ‘ensino fundamental’ and more three years at ‘ensino médio,’ and, despite having English classes almost all these years, we left school without being able to write, read or any kind of efficient communication in English.

I don’t think that that’s our teachers fault. I think our teachers could teach much more, but they have their hands tied by Education Regulations, which are made by lawmakers along with the Ministry of Education, and I don’t think they care that much about Brazilian people’s learning problems.

At college, one of my teachers once told me that she talked to a Spanish woman who spoke English very well, and my teacher asked her in which language school she had learned English so well. The Spanish woman said, a little confused by the question, that she had learned English at school, referring to the “normal” school, not a specialized language school as it so often happens in Brazil. The same woman complemented her answer by asking my teacher “Why? Don’t you have English classes at school in Brazil”, again referring to public school, which are attended by the majority of the students here in my country. The problem is that we do have English classes, but they are a waste of time.

For more than 2 years Brazilian lawmakers and the Ministry of Education have been elaborating a new Basic Educational Curriculum, which would dictates most of what and how schools teach. This time they have been asking teachers, education experts, students, parents, and society to help build this new Curriculum. I have read some parts of it and I think they have based their ideas a lot on the Finish Educational System, because the curriculum, if it’s approved, will make education much more flexible, giving students more freedom to choose subjects they are most interested in. I hope it will decrease dropout rates as it will make education more interesting, and people like doing what they feel attracted to. If they are taking it serious this time, I think they will give special attention to languages teaching, by giving teachers the proper tools and freedom to work with their students.