5 English Lessons Learned While Skiing: Lesson 3

My first day this year on the mountain I was a little rusty 

(translation: I needed practice). 

So in the evenings, I watched instructional videos on YouTube. 

But they weren’t helping. 

Take a look at this screenshot: 

Does that make sense to you? 

Most of the ski instructors on YouTube talk about skiing like English teachers talk about speaking: they make it confusing! 

And then I watched one video where the instructor said something that did make sense. 

He said, “Skiing is a feeling sport.” 

“Ah ha!” I thought. “I understand that.” 

English Is A Feeling Sport

Try this: Ask a native speaker “What suffix do you add to the base of the verb in the third person singular?” 

You might get a strange look, but you won’t get the correct answer. 

But you know the answer, right?

It’s “s.” 

But who always uses it correctly? 

The native speaker or the student?

I always hear native speakers say “He goes”, “She sleeps” and “It stinks.”

But I often hear even advanced students forgetting the “s.” (It’s one of the most common speaking mistakes.)  

And why is this?

It’s because the student thinks.

While the native speaker feels.