Here’s a great excerpt from an article by Paul Danahar in the March 8 issue of Outlook.

” In a sign that it may one day open up to the western world, North Korea has gradually shifted a lot of its language training away from Chinese and Russian towards English. I asked one student what he hoped to do with his language skills. ” I hope to achieve speaking English so that I can go abroad and do some business, because I want to be a businessman”, he told me. Another said he was going to be a diplomat. They seemed at the moment anyway, quite willing to engage with the outside world.”

Is there any country in the world where speaking good English is not a must? Is there any country in the world where Good English is the passport to success? Even China - and today lots of American students are being taught Mandarin - has made English a top priority, and focussed lots of resources to achieving this goal.

Good English has provided India the cutting edge in the BPO and offshoring markets so far. But if we dont watch out, we will be overtaken by other countries.