THERE are lots of places in the world to learn English even in countries where the language is not the country’s first tongue. Here in Salamanca for example (where one to one English lessons are a good source of income for the American students), there are a number of English language schools here because the European Union has instituted the mandatory addendum in high school curricula all over the continent to teach a second language in their high school students. And English is one of the widely-favored languages for high school students here in Salamanca and the rest of Spain to learn aside from Portuguese and Danish. This is a natural phenomenon because many of the tourists and expats living here in Salamanca are British. Lately though, there have been an influx of American tourists here who are in the moviemaking industry in Hollywood. They were here a year ago to shoot the movie Vantage Point. Vantage Point stars a horde of American actors and actresses such as Matthew Fox of Lost, Dennis Quaid, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Forest Whitaker and William Hurt. That’s a stellar cast right there and when these tourists went to Salamanca, they had a pretty good time conversing with the locals because the latter know how to speak English too well especially the ones in the hospitality industry.

Another location that is a stand-in for Salamanca in the movie is Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and Puebla, Mexico. Of course, the actors and actresses in Vantage Point were again very grateful and impressed that the folks in Mexico know English. In fact, Hollywood is impressed so much with the entertainment industry in that country that they have decided to adapt the known television series in that country Betty La Fea and transform it into an American household name starring the likes of America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams. Transforming Mexico into an English-speaking country and opening its doors to English-speaking investors, tourists and expats have all been made possible with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is also through NAFTA that American farmers have started farming in Mexico because of cheap labor and production costs. Because of that, these entrepreneurial farmers must interact with the Mexican workers and to avoid the language barrier, Mexicans have to learn a few English words. That’s why English language schools in such places as Ciudad Juarez have started sprouting since the turn of this decade. And these English language schools are doing well.

Another phenomenon that has grasped businessmen in North America is to outsource their operations offshore to third-party companies for the same reason – cheap labor and production costs. Thus we have heard of content management, customer service and technical support centers sprouting in such places as the Philippines, India and New Zealand. Most of the clients who outsource offshore are Fortune 500 companies like Sprint and T-Mobile. Because of this influx, many people in the outsourced countries need to learn English fast so they can grab the opportunities at hand.