REaChing for the stars
Empowering English Language Learners
It is the end of the school year here in Japan, and the final question posed to students in Advanced English class is "What does it mean to be a global engineer?" In class, we discussed this with concept webs, and then we did some reading and watched some videos to help us think about the idea. Now, students are tasked with creating their own definitions for what it means. This is rather timely this year, as the school administration looks to a new era of curriculum reform, with a greater focus on global understandings, relationships, and English development.
As students finish their definitions, they will post them here as comments. Do you agree with their definitions? Feel free to post comments as well. Who are global engineers? What do they do? Why are they important? I urge you to help students explore these questions.
12 Comments
Sojiro Sakuda
1/16/2014 01:44:32 pm
My definition of GE is:
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Yuya Nakajima
1/16/2014 02:00:18 pm
I define Global engineers as Engineers who can work anywhere with their professional skill for cooperating and working them selves. I think the biggest potential to be required is ability to communicate with other language speakers through anything to act. In my opinion English is useful and one great way, but not the only way.
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1/16/2014 02:29:40 pm
Wikipedia says engineers are people who "apply scientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to solve for technical problems."
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Keigo Kawasaki
1/20/2014 08:11:01 am
Global engineers are the engineers who has some skills to do projects with the engineers all over the world. Therefore they need a lot of professional skills and knowledge, some connections around the world, some skills to communicate with the people all around the world.
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Miki Nishimura
1/20/2014 08:21:45 am
I think Engineers have skills and many experiences to make things such as buildings, machines, software, etc… Global Engineers have skills to communicate with many people. I think these skills help engineers to work in the world.
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Tomoki
1/20/2014 08:29:56 am
A global engineer is someone who could work with people all over the world, so global engineers require both technical skills and communication skills. Many global engineers are required to speak English, because it is the most helpful language for international communication. Also they should have an understanding of differences between countries like cultures, perspectives and histories, because this is an essential elements for working with other people
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Haruka Iwatsubo
1/20/2014 08:30:52 am
I believe, global engineers are people who think about many people’s opinions and work to design things people want and need. They should know customer’s needs, and try to solve it. Many people can speak English, so I think global engineers should speak English to communicate with people from English speaking country.
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Chihiro Honda
1/20/2014 08:33:33 am
Global engineers are people who have both engineering skills and communication skills together, I think. They create things by collaborating on projects with people around the world.
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Keita
1/20/2014 08:42:30 am
Global engineers need to have great communication skills and cooperate with many people. English is one way to communicate with people from abroad. Also they need technological knowledge especially knowledge of using computer.
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Takuma
1/20/2014 08:43:57 am
I think global engineers are people who can work anywhere with anyone. To do that, global engineers should have useful engineer skills to use to teach. To work with anyone, global engineers should speak suitable language for understanding each other, such as English, Chinese or Spanish.
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Soichiro
1/20/2014 09:07:30 am
Global engineers are people who can work with people from other countries and can communicate with anyone to tell them their own ideas. And, they have knowledge about engineering. I mean they are experts in their field.
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All of your comments (i.e. definitions) of what it means to be a global engineer are great! You worked hard to develop these understandings and write these concise definitions. It seems there are two dimensions to global engineering. Global engineers need both excellent communications skills, which come with learning about different languages, "cultures, perspectives, and histories" (Tomoki), and even within one's own culture by developing empathy and collaborative ability. In addition, they need knowledge and skills within their field of engineering, so that they can share with and teach others as well as produce products and solutions. I also believe, as Haruka said, that they need to have an awareness of their customers' wants and needs. It reminds me of design thinking, where we start by looking at our potential customers or those with a problem we are trying to solve, and then design or innovate with them in mind.
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