今年两会，全国政协委员、九三学社中央委员许进建议改革义务教育阶段英语的必修课地位。这一建议在网上引发了热议。

 

In the proposal, Xu said that English should not be a core subject like Chinese and math during compulsory¹ education and more course hours should be given to improving students' skills in physical education, music and art.

许进在建议中表示，义务教育阶段，英语等外语课程不再设为与语文和数学同等的主课，增加体育、音乐、艺术等素质教育课程占比。

 

Xu said English and other foreign languages should also not be included as compulsory subjects for the national college entrance exam.

不再将英语（或外语）设为高考必考的科目。

 

许进的解释是：

 

While English takes up about 10 percent of class hours, less than 10 percent of university graduates use the language at work, he said.

英语教学课时约占学生总课时的10%，但英语只对不到10%的大学毕业生有用。

 

Moreover, smart translation devices can offer sophisticated translation services and in the age of artificial intelligence, translators will be among the top 10 professions to be eliminated, he added.

此外，现在的翻译机可以提供口语翻译服务，技术十分成熟。在人工智能时代，翻译职业位居即将被淘汰职业的前10名。

 

这番话立即引发网友热议。有些网友认为这一建议值得商榷。

 

不过，也有网友表示，花了很多时间学英语，日常生活中却用不到，确实有点浪费时间。

 

According to a online poll by China Youth Daily, more than 110,000 respondents opposed the proposal and said English should be taught early at schools to enable China to compete with other countries. However, around 100,000 people supported the proposal and said it would be better to spend more time learning Chinese language and culture.

《中国青年报》一项在线调查显示，参与调查的人当中，有超过11万反对这项建议，并表示学校应该早开英语课，提升中国在全世界的竞争力。约有10万人支持该建议，认为应该花更多时间学习中文和文化。

 

许进3月4日在接受采访时进一步解释称，

 

"I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn English. I'm saying that we shouldn't let the whole population learn the language while only a few can use it, and this just doesn't make sense. According to data released in 2019, there are about 40 million students learning English in preschool and compulsory education, but probably less than 4 million will use it at work. They learn English for nine years and in the end only 1/10 of them will use the language. It is a waste of educational resources to make children shoulder such a heavy burden and ask them to learn a course that they may not use in the future."

“我不是说不要学英语，我是说不要让全民都去学而只有少数人能用到英语，这个就不合理了。根据2019年数据，学前教育和义务教育阶段约有4000万学生学英语，但工作后用得到英语的可能还不到400万。义务教育阶段学9年，最后只有1/10的人有用，让孩子背负那么重的负担，让孩子学一门未来可能用不上的课程，是对教育资源的浪费。”

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