Learning English is usually functional at the beginning. It has an expressed purpose, which is often commercial. English is the accepted business language of Europe. If you have a colleague or customer in Italy or France, it is expected that you will converse in English, not that you need to become an expert in their language. This is helpful, but it also means that learning English can feel forced, or aimed toward some limited goal. This can be good, but it also tends to remove some of the fun.
Wherever you are from, you have a native tongue, and you use it for many different types of activity. I think the way we use language contributes more to our happiness as humans than we realise. Language is what made previous jobs I did in my life difficult to endure; I was using the wrong type of language or using it in an unpleasant way. When I worked in banking I had to learn the language of bond yields, corporate actions and fixed income settlements. These were not inspirational words to use, and did not lead to many beautiful or imaginative conversations! It led to repetitive interactions with people, which caused me to be unhappy.
I am learning Spanish at the moment and I realised that unless I craft it around my own interests, I will not fully revel in the joy of it. Since a major passion of mine is literature, a pleasurable activity for me would be to read a writer I like, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Spanish. I have read One Hundred Years of Solitude in English, but I would like to enjoy it in its original language. Better to start with one of his short stories for practice!
So my best advice to anyone learning English is to aim to fulfill a passion of yours using English; if you love singing learn a song in English, if you love poetry write a poem in English and if you get excited by horror films watch a great one in English!
If you see English as purely for one purpose, and not as something that can complement all your experience, your enthusiasm for it will soon fade away.
Don’t hesitate to send me any comments or to request an English class with me.
Thanks for reading!
Rory Milhench
