if you want to learn english…

My Year 3s were practicing the modal verb “should” in class one day, so we practiced giving advice for different situations. For a group discussion, I asked them: If you want to learn English, what should you do? They came up with some great answers.

If you want to learn English, you should*…

• memorize a lot of words and Idoms.
• practice pronunciation.
• recite vocabulary.
• memorize many word phrases.
• do preview, review.
• try to copy native speaker’s pronunciation.
• study English and Korean grammar.
• learn English hard in the school.
• hearing teacher’s talking.
• prepare for the next English class.
• listen to what the teacher says.
• be interested in the class.
• not chatting with your friends.
• participate during class.
• go Academy (cram school)
• quiet in the classroom.
• pay attention during class.
• do the class activities.
• do the homework hardly.
• read English newspaper.
• listen to English CDs.
• watch English channels on TV.
• watch the CNN channel or animation (like shimpsons (?))
• play English game.
• read a lot of English books!
• watch English movie without translation.
• listen to English songs.
• listen English very much.
• read books about English.
• speaking English.
• have English talk time.
• try to write things in English.
• write down important things.
• be friends with people who speak English well.
• do penpal with another country friends.
• meet lots of foreign people.
• try to talk to foreign people.
• go to foreign countries.
• go abroad.
• go to America.
• speak louder.
• be brave to use English.
• try to like learning English.
• have a positive attitude.
• get a confidence.
• do effort always.

* Taken directly from my students’ work, mistakes and notations included!

explore. dream. discover.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
~ Mark Twain

learning language

No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby — so helpless and so ridiculous.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If I followed his advice, I would miss out on half the adventures, half the chaos, half the fun.

But Mr. Emerson does have a point.

While it makes travelling more difficult, it also could make it more valuable. It’s (sometimes unfortunately) really easy to visit and even live in Seoul without knowing Korean. But there are times I wish I could communicate deeper with people. I’m lucky; my friends from work are able to translate a lot of their and other’s conversations for me. But there’s more to communication that just simple translations. It’s meanings. It’s understanding what’s not being said. That’s what I’m missing.

before you go

My recommendation before travelling somehere new?

Always write down your preconceptions, your predictions about the place. Once you arrive, you’ll forget what you thought it was going to be like and take it for what it is. It’s interesting to see how far you’ve come and how differently you see a place.