Real-life situations where English-reading ability crucial??

1. You are a bank teller who has just been handed a note saying "put $20.000.00 in this bag or I will blow your head off."

2. You plan on ever using the internet.

3. You are flying an airplane and the readout on the computer screen says "pull up, crash imminent "

1)You are living in an English speaking nation where nobody else speaks or reads anything other than English and the menu arrives in English...be careful some of the dishes listed are poisonous and you must eat whatever you order or be sentenced to 50 years of hard labor.
2)You are going to sign a contract and there is a clause in it which states that you will go to jail if you don't hang a particular banner in your window once a month.
3)You have just found out you have the winning lottery numbers but the information for collecting it is in English.
4)A letter arrives in the mail from your closest loved one...they have written it in English...it says they are being held captive and will be killed at noon, 3 days hence if you do not follow the demands and that you will then be arrested for their murder...again, only if you do not respond.
5)You are in the movie theater and a movie has subtitles, even though the person you are with speaks the language of the film, you sadly do not...you claimed to also know the language when inviting them to the film. You know deep down they are your soulmate, the one you want to spend the remainder of your days with. The subtitles are in English and that will be your only way to understand the film...if you don't then you will be humiliated in the theater lobby and it will happen on national television as well (apparently a famous celebrity is at the theater so the camera crews have showed up) and to cap it off your soulmate will walk away leaving you forever.

Do like the bank situation example, very good.

Was looking for more serious suggestions though.

Can anyone think of any genuine serious situations, something on the lines of looking for employment?? Dont think my TEFL teacher would be too pleased if I put those in :wink:

Hope someone can help.

1) You have to read the directions for taking prescription medicine -- for you or for your dependent child.

2) You have to fill out an employment application.

3) You've been pulled over by the police who only speak English.

1. You show up at a jobsite (construction) and the whole crew only speaks spanish so you end up trying to do the whole job through cherades.

2. Your lost in L.A. (I've been in L.A. my whole life and I stgill get lost. 35 years) you go to five places to get directions. Two places speak Spanish, one place chinese, one arabic, and the last place @#%$&.

I just realized I'm not doing this right. O'well, see you later.

You know something? I don't think that your TEFL teacher would be too pleased to know that you were having other people doing your assignment.

Good one, theres always one smart alec isnt there. In the end of the day I didnt pay for this course, and therefore as I never chose to do it (I'm only doing it cos as its free and seems silly not too) I dont feel guilty if I get a little help here and there. I've done everything else with no help, so I dont think one or two sections makes me a lazy git who simply cant be bothered to learn. There were just one or two sections that I was stuck on and any help would have been much appreciated.

If you want to be Mr Sarcy, then thats your call, and those suggestions earlier were funny, all I hoped (not expected of course - it was nice for anyone to make the effort to reply) for was a little help with some suggestions.

Worldsites--

Welcome to A2K.

English is very useful for defending oneself against criticism, isn't it?

1. You are studying in an English speaking country and you have to do some assignments. Your tutors require you to read about 10 books to do each. English-reading ability become crucial!

2. When you open your lover's mailbox, you see a mail from his/her ex's address. The mail was written in English! Oops!

3. When you wanna search information in the Internet! Ohh... English-reading skill, hope it's more and more better!

I only can find out 3 situations above! Ah, the last one, when I view Able2Know forum, I'm not native speaker! Oh, no!!!!!!!!

TammyBaby--

Native English speaker or no, you are welcome on A2K.

Highway driving.
Where every exit sign says where and what street it is headed too.

EXIT signs during a building fire are always helpful to be able to read

Breaker switch on your home in the event of a power outage or electrical emergency

Directions on a medicine bottle ( i believe was already said)

Cooking directions and measurements from a cookbook or written by a friend for an important dinner

Prices in stores

Clothing care tags

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. Yep, thought of the medicine one, and the signs one, but hadnt thought about anything like your other suggestions such as breaker switch in your home.

Great suggestions folk and now I have my 5 real life situations.

May I wish all of you a fantastis Xmas and a Happy New Year.

good luck to ya!

happy holidays. :-)

Worldsites - It's good that you have your quota of reasons for English-reading ability. Good luck. Should you need further reasons, here's a few more:

1. Taking the TOEFL or IELTS tests (both used
worldwide) - for education admission or
employment opportunity.

2. Being lost in London or New York (but you have
a city map in English).

3. In an emergency, being able to read the "In
case of Emergency" instructions.
( no translations available).

4. Renting (or borrowing) a car in Los Angeles and
going for a drive down one of the world's
busiest freeways (all the signs are in English).

5. As Tammy said: "When you wanna search
information in the Internet!"

Although not absolutely essential, English-reading ability can make searching easier, more far-reaching, and often, more productive.
(This is so even with Google (or other machine) translation function available, because the machine-translations are only rough approximations - not too useful wherever precision is important. On the other hand, English-only internet searchers are also handicapped (to a lesser extent), since much good material worldwide is only available in languages other than English - and the same rough translation limitations apply as in the case of English as the source language. Multilingualism is increasingly an advantage).