I have seen a few social-media posts recently about problems with learning English and they have made me think that many people may be approaching the whole concept of language learning in what I consider to be the wrong way. 

Many people think that it is necessary to learn English because it is an important global language; but how much of the globe do they really want to communicate with? This raises the question ’Who do you want to talk to?’ 

If people are working in international environments then there could be a real advantage in having good English language skills for talking with clients, suppliers, colleagues, team members, subordinates, employees... - there are many possibilities. 

The next question is 'What do you want to talk about with these people?' Simply learning the English provided in a text book is not going to be very helpful for the specific conversations necessary in most jobs. It is important to remember that the language is just a tool for communication. This is a process that many people are not very good at in their first language so simply learning English may not be enough. 

We need to be good communicators in the language we choose to use at the time and this introduces elements beyond grammar and vocabulary.