DUBLIN, IRELAND – Look what I saw yesterday:
Fools!
They traveled hundreds… maybe thousands of miles to improve their English, and what do the students at this English school do on their smoke break? Speak Spanish, speak Italian or speak Korean to their Spanish or Italian or Korean friends.
The fools!
Oh well, I did the same thing when I was 16. Except instead of Dublin it was Paris where I spoke English all the time with my American friends.
I think the main reason people make these kinds of mistakes is because some mistakes feel good.
One of the book I brought on the ship (if you missed last week’s email, I’m on a cruise going around the British Isles) is about how people learn. And in one chapter the author talks about why students still use old methods when research proves the new methods work better.
It’s simply because it feel like they’re making progress.
Like sugar feels good although it has no vitamins, travelling to Dublin and attending an English school feels like a good thing to do for your English although you spend all your free time speaking your native language.
I’ve got more to say about this, including a new technique I learned for remembering words faster, but I’ll save it for next week.
Because what kind of a fool works on vacation?