I AM A TEACHER, YOU ARE A WHORE

EVERY COUNTRY HAS TO MAKE SPECIAL PREPARATIONS for major international events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup. I was very impressed by the Chinese authorities before the games in Beijing 2008, when every taxi driver and hotel employee was given free English language lessons to help them deal with the vast numbers of tourists flooding to the city.

 

AND IT IS A SIGN OF THE STEPS that Brazil has taken over recent years that they are planning a similar campaign to help tourism and local trade. Every single one of the 4,000 prostitutes in Belo Horizonte, one of the cities which will host games for the 2014 Soccer World Cup is being offered free English language classes by the local authorities. I am quoting Prostitute Association President Cida Vieira: "It will be important for the girls who will be able to use English to let their clients know what they are charging and learn about what turns them on."

 

OF COURSE, ONE COULD EASILY see this as discrimination, given that no similar service is being offered to drug dealers and kidnappers, although I imagine that the programme could be extended by the time we get to the Olympics in 2016.

 

AS A LANGUAGE TEACHER myself, I tend to wonder about the content of the classes. If these ladies are total beginners, then I imagine the language schools will adopt the so-called Direct Method – the “I am a teacher, you are a student, this is a table, that is a chair” approach. The variants are endless.