Monday 27 September 2010

Made in Touraine


This is where we went on Saturday.

It was an exhibition of companies in our region, presenting themselves and their products.

We went because a lot of our clients were there and it was a chance to talk to a few more.

As we walked around and talked to our clients there were a few points that were always made-

  • Business is slow but getting better but nowhere back to 2008 figures.
  • 2010 is better than last year but still difficult and visibility for later in the year is non- existant.
  • Potential employees - graduates, students etc were not aware that English would be as important to them.
One company told us that as soon as they mentioned English and started to talk in English to them, they looked horrified. Another of our clients was telling potential employees that they needed to have two things - a good knowledge of computer based design software and be able to speak English.

In schools in France there is a lot of emphasis put on reading and writing but not much conversation. This does not help kids in the future when they will need English to find a job.
Nearly all of my children's friends lack confidence when I speak to them in English and I have been doing that for nearly 10 years with some of them.

If you live in the Uk and are good at other languages and you are preared to travel - the world is your oyster.

When you speak English as your first language, I think you just take it for granted without realising all the doors it can open for you if you want to go through them.

2 comments:

MarmaladeRose said...

How true, I think we do take it for granted.

Get that knitting started girl! What is the worse that can happen eh? You might actually enjoy the challenge, learn something new and end up with a lovely cardi! Go on give it a go, take one step at a time. Cast on. lol.

love fi x

Diane said...

Thats really interesting. PS - youve spurred me on to make Lemon Curd. xxxxn