Rush for English Language at the Linguistic Centre

Many more people are now studying the English language in Douala.

“I am from Equatorial Guinea. I have come to study French and English, because there are many American companies in my country. I like to work in one of them”. These were the words of a student of the Douala Linguistic Centre recently. English Language, especially in Cameroon is gaining more grounds owing to the fact that it is the Language most needed anywhere in the world today. In the past, many people did not consider its importance, but many Cameroonians have been discovering the need to learn and master the language when they attend international seminars and programmes abroad. Here in Douala, being a business town, many transactions are done in English. Much of the technological tools are in English. Some businessmen have expressed concern over the difficulties they face sometimes when they go to do business in Dubai and other countries. Besides there is also a shortcoming when people from other nationalities want to carry out some transactions with them.At the Douala Linguistic Centre there are more and more business persons who rush to study English Language to improve on their communication with their customers. They are business men from the private, as well as, some officials of the public sector. According to the Director of the Centre, Mrs Mbiwan Tanyi Ebob Evenye, companies like Guinness, COTCO, AES-SONEL, Standard Charter Bank, Chantier Naval, DHL, and ASCENA among others always send their staff for training. Companies have seen the increasing need to understand and work in the two official languages in Cameroon. The reason why in job advertisements there is the request for people who have a mastery of both the written and spoken French and English. Mrs Tanyi Ebob also testified that another category of students she has are job seekers. Companies want to give the best to their customers and clients and it can only be possible when they have workers who can express themselves in both English and French. Douala being a francophone area, the number of people who wish to learn English learners is more than those who wish to learn French. She added that this is so because some Anglophones take the bull by the horn and speak even poor French as long as they can drive through their message. But a francophone would always say “my English is not good” and will hesitate to speak.There is another category of students who want to travel to Europe and America for further studies. “They have no choice but to study English”, the Director said. There are other big centres where the English Language can be taught such as, the American Language Centre and the British Council, in Douala. But the Linguistic Centre in Douala is a bilingual training centre for both Anglophones and Francophones. Apart from the language classes, there also offer training in computer usage in both English and French. According to the Assistant Director, Denis Ngono, training is done using audio-visuals, books and practical at the Self-Access Learning Centre. This centre has cubicles that are learning units, used in correcting pronunciations. Apart from Equatorial Guineans there are also Indians, Nigerians, etc, who study English to improve on their relations with business partners.

EFFA TAMBENKONGHO