When I was a kid, one of my favorite Bible stories was The Tower of Babel.
In the story, man decides he will build a tower so tall that it will reach God.
Well, someone tells God about this building project, He doesn’t like it, and He destroys the tower.
So you can’t reach God by building a tower.
I say, it’s the same for English fluency.
On The Road Again
My stay in Prague is almost at an end.
Your teacher, dear reader, has a classroom in the clouds.
Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I can teach anywhere.
And I’m working hard to teach everywhere.
So it’s a new year and that means it’s time for a new country.
I’ll let you know where I go when I arrive there.
The Tower Of Fluency
Every Saturday I meet new students on Zoom.
And every week, I hear questions like this one:
“Will we be in different groups according to our level’?
That’s a normal question.
After all, in school we were placed in different groups according to our level.
But here’s the problem: They’re trying to build a tower to fluency.
They think, If I learn Rule 1 that’s one brick in the tower.
Then I’ll learn Rule 2, and that’ll be another brick that I can place on top of the first brick.
If they keep learning enough rules, soon they’ll have a tall tower that reaches so high, English student and God will soon be discussing politics and religion in fluent English.
But that’s a fantasy.
A dream.
Some students know rules and can’t speak.
Other students don’t know rules and can speak.
There’s no connection between speaking and knowledge of rules.
None.
In fact, I’ve seen the opposite.
Focus on doing English, using English, forget about the rules, and you’ll reach your goal faster.
You can’t reach God by building a tower of bricks.
And you can’t reach fluency by building a tower of rules.
Cheers.
I have been learning rules for a year and I can’t speak English.I can’t!😢😢😢😢New I meet You and I try to change my method.And it works🤗Thank You!!!
Excellent comparison, really informative.
Awesome story …
Awesome comparison …
I can imagine the amazing dialogue between the English student and God…
Maybe I will write a short one… in English of course
Just enjoy by speaking English 😊
I love this idea – There’s no connection between speaking and knowledge of rules.- Have experienced that in my life. I have even shared it with my friend who tries to learn Latvian, and the teacher provides more and more, and more grammar each week! (and no speaking). I speak English for more than 20 years as I have worked as international relations coordinator for university. Still, I am scared to go live in Instagram or stories in English, because my English “is not good enough”, I don’t think it is close to native speakers. And now I understand that there is no other way – just go out and do it, practice, practice, practice! Am I right? Are there any other ideas how could I upgrade my English to be closer to native speakers?
There is a connection between speaking and listening. Listen to audiobooks that you really love (and the reader has a nice voice and pace) and podcasts or lectures on video about topics that intrigue you. Just listening to stuff that you really enjoy will improve your speaking skills in every respect. The kind of stuff where you can listen to one speaker for a longer period of time is especially useful.
Great advice!
You are right! And to upgrade, listen and read daily.
The best way to learn and speak a language is to have someone to talk and also self study