Martina was a student who really felt bad about her English.
I could tell every time she opened her mouth, every time she made a sound… she wasn’t sure about her words, my words, even if she could finish the sentence she was trying to form…
Then one day, as we were sitting on my couch in my apartment, drinking coffee and talking about I don’t remember what, she told me none of her friends spoke English.
“Interesting,” I thought.
Could that be part of her problem?
In fact, was it even possible for her to become a confident, relaxed, fluent English speaker if none of her friends were?
As I’ve mentioned before in these emails, my nieces have studied languages in school, they passed their tests with good grades, but none of them come close to fluent.
Of course, I blame the methods used in school.
But let’s imagine if they had become fluent…. That would mean they would have been the first… the only one of their friends to speak a foreign language.
These are not the kind of girls to wear purple hair. Like most people, they simply want to get along, to be like and to be liked by their friends.
Being different isn’t how to do that.
The Advantage of Being An Adult #4
This week our subject is, the advantages adult English students have that children do not.
Today’s advantage is, You can choose your friends.
When you were a kid, your best friends were in your class and in your neighborhood. Geography and timing chose your friends for you.
Now, as an adult, you can finally choose your own friends.
And if you believe you’re the average of your friends, maybe it’s time to be strategic about who you want as a friend….
Interesting fact: If you have a good friend who becomes fat, your chances of also becoming fat increase by 57%. And if you describe this friend as “close”, it increases to 171%-even if you don’t live in the same town!
So who are your friends?
Do they share your goals? Your dreams? Your ambitions?
And most importantly, how’s their English?
