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Book or shoes?
When I first moved to Prague I saw there were two types of people on the metro.
The type who looked at a book and the type who looked at their shoes.
Me, I’m the first type.
I always want to use free time to learn something.
So when I was walking to the train station Sunday morning I was listening to my new favorite business podcast, How I Built This.
The lady being interviewed grew up in China, then came to the US and started a busines. And when she was talking about learning English in China, she didn’t talk about studying English.
Instead, she said this: to learn a language you have to live it.
I love that!
That’s exactly what I tell my students.
English isn’t math or biology.
It’s something you do.
So how can you live English?
Well, the Chinese businesslady talked about watching American movies.
I listen to the news in French instead of English.
And here’s another way:
This is why I was going to the train station. I was going on a hike with the group Discovering Prague.
I don’t join them every weekend, but when I do, I always meet people from all of the world.
Today, I met people from Columbia, Germany, Slovakia, Peru, China….
Not all of them had great English. But they were all living the language.
So that’s another idea. Join this group, if you live in Prague. Or another group on meetup.com. Or start your own group.
But whatever you do, stop studying English! Live it!