DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED
If you are in an exam-prep mode, step on it and attack it with everything you’ve got: time, effort, motivation, more time and more effort. We understand that your Federal C-Level exam needs to go well; your job interview is important.
However, if you are learning English because
– you are a gamer or
– your spouse and their family are English-speaking or
– you want to watch movies in the original, hear the actual voices and soundtrack or
– you enjoy singing along or
– you are tired of being quiet at parties or
– for any other reason, you really want to improve your English, español, français…
THEN LISTEN UP.
You cannot have it neatly wrapped and take it home like a purchase. You cannot order it prime or overnight. You cannot hang it on the wall and show it off forever.
Once a student said, “Jeez, I would love to pay all nine levels, and then have a hole drilled into my head, and all knowledge poured in, and wake up fluent in English!” Oh, what a great business that would be for us, teachers, too!
Until then, we will show up for work, motivate and entertain you, find more ways to get you to practice what we just taught you – and divulge that EVEN THE BEST STUDENTS PUTTING IN THEIR BEST EFFORT, RETAIN A MAXIMUM OF 40% of what they learn. If you don’t use it, you lose it: language, muscles, skills…
Striving for perfection is adorable, when it comes to language learning. Nobody will ever learn every word and expression in any language. You do what serves you. Program a radio station in your car in that new language; find the lyrics to that awesome song and go, again and again, untill it rolls off your tongue; look for opportunities to speak with others, no matter how scary it seems. What’s the worst that can happen?
Happy Holiday Season to all and good luck in the New Year. Learn a new word every week, sing your heart out at karaoke or all alone, take that step and have some fun with it! Joyeuses fêtes, Feliz Navidad, честита Коледа. Be fierce – truly, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain with a new language.