Ba duda, ba duda, ba duda, badu
It's funny how, when swamped by the day-to-day rush, every one of us goes on about everything we would do with a bit more spare time. And yet, when that magic moment arrives, we end up doing none of the things we vowed we would.
How many times have you said to yourself: “This September I´ll sit down and start studying English properly, once and for all”? Thousands, I suspect.
September is the time for TV channels across the board regale us with tales of people taking up English in their thousands under the usual, hollow banner of 'back to work, back to English'. It seems that many people deciding to take up a foreign language is perfect for rounding off the evening news on a high note. In my opinion, it is nothing more than indulging in smug complacency.
The truth of the matter is that 80% of all those people who took English seriously in September soon give up, many not for the first time. How can so many lose interest in something they were once so determined to do in so short a space of time? Something in the English language sector must be terribly wrong, or else it is an indictment of the lack of tenacity in the human race at large.
A select few do have the discipline and strength of mind to stick at it and work hard on their English over a sustained period of time. These are the true heros in my classes and their endeavour and achievement should be celebrated on the news and be the lyrics to songs like the one that is the title of this article, from 'September', by the glorious Earth, Wind and Fire. Curiously enough, it is the line all my students can understand with apparently no difficulty at all.
CARLOS CALVO
English teacher at EOI Girona