Tuesday I asked you a question.
I asked, What is English?
An incorrect answer is, “a foreign language.”
That’s what Berlitz thinks.
But we know better.
One correct answer came from reader Micky who said, “A passport and a key.”
Another correct answer came from reader Carmelita who said, “A dream.”
My Student David’s American Dream
My student David had a dream.
It was a powerful dream, because it was a shared dream.
Let me explain…
David was an Amero-phile, which means he loved everything that came from America, that means movies, music, food, writers, etc.
(Can you guess what these words mean? “Anglophile” “Audiophile” “Francophile”)
And of course, he also loved baseball.
Unfortunately, he never got to play when he was a kid. (For those who grew up in communist Czechoslovakia, baseball was on a long list of forbidden activities.)
But lucky for him, he had a son and his son loved the sport.
It was David and his son’s dream that the son would one day get to play professional baseball in America.
To reach that dream, David would need a high-level of English. (His son, like many kids these days, was just fine without me.)
He would need to coach his son’s international team in English, he would need to travel to the US for baseball camps, and he would need to talk with American coaches, in person as well as through email and on the phone.
So to help David get to where he needed to be, I was his private teacher for several years.
He was a good student.
Not just because he was smart, but because his motivation made my job easy.
Jumping forward to today…
I caught up with David recently through email.
How are he and his son doing?
He sent me a photo. His ten-year-old boy is now a man living in Florida. In the picture, he wore a baseball uniform.
He’s in the minor leagues today.
But David tells me that’s just the beginning…
A good story, right?
Have a great day!