Today I woke up with a different feeling...

#4

These days, I decided to change a little my thinking about studying English. I had already had a change of my point of view with that Kaleidoscope profile, but it seems I had forgotten what the optimistic questionnaire made me deduce. In my profile, I had already written that I “needed to find natural contexts where I can use English”, that “had to collect words I find out and look at now and then, making a decision to use them in the next possible situation” and that it was “necessary to look at me as a student again and not to feel unable to learn more, to improve, just because I have been ‘stopped’ for a long time. Once I was able to acquired my little background, I'm able to go further”, but those were not my real attitudes, and I was still looking only at the problem.

As the professor was always asking us about our last-days contacts with English, I noticed I was kind of running away of written practice: didn’t read any English link I found in blogs I read, didn’t access English language sites, didn’t practice reading English subtitles if it wasn’t with the clear purpose of studying English – not ever by pleasure, just for obligation. And I also noticed Anna Karenina was doing exactly the opposite: she was reading original English/American book texts and writing a vocabulary notebook, and that gave me a little motivation, because I knew those people in my classroom were in the same situation as I was, but looking for solutions.

I guess I already complained, when I answered to Anna’s journal, that songs weren’t really useful anymore because they didn’t really bring us new stuff. I mean, texts in general used to bring a new word, but once it was able to get their meaning in the context, I didn’t pay attention to it. So it demotivated me: it seemed that I already had the English I needed, except for some vocabulary, now and than, which wouldn’t be missed. But when I was looking for a song to take to the classroom, I decided not to choose the ones I knew better, but to look for lyrics which had a reason to be seeing in the classroom, and I felt like when I was beginning to study English: I found out lyrics I didn’t know half of what they said! And I had to translate or take a look in the dictionary for almost all words. I felt great, I could finally start my vocabulary notebook with words I would be able to remember (because I would only have to memorize the lyrics).

I am now looking for texts, in English, that interest me, like interviews with celebrities I like, so it will seem more natural for me than reading only to practice English. Once I now also started with English literature subjects, I am reading a quite different English, which is more formal and sounds strange, but I guess it is much better that way, because I need to understand it precisely, so I’ll have to make effort…