As soon as Meridith Price had her first taste of travel, she knew she’d been struck with a bad case of wanderlust. While searching for a cure for her condition in Latin America, she found herself petting alpacas in Cusco, mountain biking in the San Pedro de Atacama desert, dining al fresco in San Telmo, eating endless empanadas in Santiago and dreaming of more South American adventures. Thus far, her most meaningful and memorable experience was as a volunteer English teacher in the Chilean Patagonia region with the Chilean Ministry of Education’s “English Opens Doors” program from 2007-2008. As a current graduate student in the Washington D.C. area, she arranged for an internship with the program headquarters in Santiago in 2010.
I wrapped up my internship with the Chilean Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) just as Chile’s new president, Sebastian Piñera took office following a marginal win over left-wing candidate Eduardo Frei. As a non-partisan observer, I had enjoyed strolling by the lively campaign demonstrations held by both parties in downtown Santiago after a day in the office.
Of course, as my colleagues working for MINEDUC’s English Opens Doors Program pointed out, elections were a time of uncertainty for government employees. An administration change would also create potential for policy change. With this in mind, I left the the busy streets and idyllic weather of summertime in Santiago and returned to Washington D.C., where record amounts of snowfall had brought the ever-bustling city to a complete halt. 
With ample time to reflect on my recent internship (and write a paper about it for my grad program), I began to tackle the questions: Can English really open doors? and what place does the English language hold in Chile’s overall goals for growth and development?
As a former volunteer, I like to imagine that the time and energy I devoted to my students and my community in the Chilean Patagonia were beneficial not only to me personally, but also to the country in which I had been afforded the opportunity to live and work. However, from a more critical standpoint there is always the tension that arises when considering the use of English as a tool for economic and social advancement.
In many countries, the drive to learn English is tied to the desire to compete in a global market in which the dominant language is English. In many Latin American countries, opportunities to learn English are determined largely by class, which has often served to reinforce existing socio-economic gaps.
Since 2004, the English Opens Doors program has sought to eliminate that gap in Chile and bring a level of English fluency to the entire population within one generation. The program aims to do this by placing English speaking volunteers in public primary and secondary schools throughout all of Chile’s 15 regions, thereby creating language-learning opportunities for members of all of Chile’s social classes. Many Chileans are embracing the idea.
During the administration of former president Michelle Bachelet, the commitment to this objective was strong. The program grew from only 15 English-speaking volunteer teachers in 2004 to more than 300 volunteers in 2009 hailing from 14 different countries around the world.
As the new administration continues to promote Chile’s economic growth and participation in global markets, it seems that the focus on the importance of foreign languages is there to stay. Within the past year, the English Opens Doors program expanded to become the Languages Open Doors program, and this year new initiatives were launched for German, French and Mandarin Chinese-speaking volunteers as well.
*Editor’s note: this post was written before the Chilean earthquake. We will be posting an entry about what you can do to help on Monday.
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This topic is really good English Can Really Open Doors?