Did you see the news? That math teacher, Tang Jiafeng, said English should no longer be a core subject. People have been arguing fiercely about it these past few days.

What? No longer a core subject? Then those of us who teach English would be out of a job!

Don't panic just yet. His reasoning is that although students don't actually have many English classes, they and their parents spend a great deal of time and money on English, even though they hardly use it after graduation.

That's true. Of the students I've taught, many barely use English after graduating except to watch American TV shows. But is the real problem actually English itself?

That's exactly how Hu Xijin argued against him. He said that if English is no longer considered a core subject, schools will invest less in it. Wealthier families can still hire private tutors, but children from ordinary families will be even more disadvantaged.

I completely agree with that. If we want to reduce students' burden, we also shouldn't deprive children from ordinary families of the chance to learn English well at school.

Exactly. Simply reducing English won't help either. If the pressure from other subjects increases, children will still be just as exhausted.

Now that you've put it that way, I'm not so worried about my job anymore. Instead, I'm starting to think about how I should teach in the future so that students can really use their English.