It’s exam time.
For some people that I work with, it is the culmination of several months of turning up to classes twice a week and working through the pages of the course book. The main reason for attending is that ‘you need English everywhere these days.’ Even when people don’t need English in their jobs, they often tell me how a tourist asked for directions and, unable to speak Spanish, communicated their needs in English, even though it was not their native language.
Despite the improvements in technologies related to language translation it seems that the desire to learn is as widespread as ever, if not more so. However, I’m not convinced that the motivation is as strong. There is a huge difference between recognising that language skills are useful and actually making the effort to do something about it. We have a lot more resources than before - apps, websites and programmes etc. - to help us but we don’t have more time than before. Learning still takes time and effort. In some ways, the additional resources simply mean we need additional time to use them. There is no magical solution. No matter how many additional tools we might invent we are still working with the same common element, the human brain. If these new tools don’t give us the specific skills that we need then all they do is steal valuable time from us. We have to be careful how we choose our tools and what we choose to learn in order to maximise the results from the time and effort invested.
Not many people actually enjoy exams. For some people, the challenge of using another language at work is like having an exam every time, which can even mean every day.
The key? The solution? Get some motivation and do more.
We get better if we do more - but it is important to prepare first and choose what to learn. Then review the results afterwards. If we have a simple system we can learn what we need, quickly.
