Page 25 - ELG1801 Jan Issue 453

FEATURES & COMMENT
‘We can easily forget part of the language. I realised quickly
that having a real interest in the language
changed everything: within two hundred
about the students’ days of starting this experience, I was able to
talk in Italian to waiters, to cashiers and to
my friends without hesitating. The accuracy
wasn’t always spot on, but let’s look on the
bright side – the fluency was.
German was a whole different ball game.
French-born English teacher Hélène Combe put herself in I had some friends (including a German
her students’ shoes by trying to learn Italian and German teacher) willing to help me, but I was

in just a year – and she learnt some important lessons unable to generate interest by myself for the
language.
It was not my first attempt, to be fair. I
ince I became an English teacher last enough English, through the radio, music or started to learn German at thirteen years old,
year, a lot of people have actually movies. Perhaps they already have enough but back then it wasn’t my personal choice
asked me why I chose this kind of exposure to English in their lives and don’t (it was my parents’) and I guess I rejected the
Scareer – after getting a degree in feel a need for classes. After all, there are a language because of that very reason.
business and working six years in real estate. lot of apps available, and they can revise some I tried to do at least one exercise a day
After all, as a French speaker, I learned basic vocabulary through them. but after two hundred days I caught myself
English mostly by myself, by watching TV So I thought I could do the same – with skipping the daily exercise, which became a
shows with subtitles on and by reading another language, of course, one that I had weekly couple of exercises. I realised that the
short stories, newspaper articles and movies already encountered but never really fully reason I couldn’t focus on German was that I
reviews. So, why did I choose this career? studied. Around that time, I read an article didn’t like it, and forcing myself to study was
The answer is fairly simple: I love about a night guard in Venezuela who learnt leading nowhere. I am still studying German,
languages. I didn’t wake up one morning six languages through apps and movies. I was but once or twice a week, and I know it will
after a good night’s sleep with an infinite love take me some time to achieve a decent level.
for English. I fell in love with English at an You may be deeply Everybody is different, and everybody
early age. I had my first English lesson at four learns differently. As teachers, we assume that
years old, and my teacher, back then, told my in love with English… students are dying to learn, that they are just
mother that I had a ‘thing’ for it! And it has but the student sitting as motivated as we are. Being a language-
never left me. learner again, basically from scratch, proved
Maybe it’s the prosody, or maybe it’s the opposite you might not to me that as teachers we can easily forget
way I was introduced to the language, which about the students, and tend to concentrate
was mainly through culture. I was lucky care a whit about this on our subject, the language we studied for
enough to travel a lot, and I have always been years. But what’s really important, when
curious about other cultures and civilizations. inspired by that story and decided to give it a you teach, is the students. It’s not how you
When I decided to become a language try myself for a whole year. I chose Italian and pronounce, how you talk or if you like that
teacher, I wanted to put myself in a student’s German, bought some books, downloaded topic that counts. What counts most is what
shoes and learn a language in order to some apps, and started the experiment. they need.
understand them, to understand the process Learning a language on your own is a
from the inside out. different experience from learning in a
You, as a teacher, may be deeply in love classroom with a teacher, so I found some After a six-year career in
with English – and British and American friends who could help me. Fortunately, my French real estate, business
civilization – but the student sitting opposite father being Italian, I had spent time there school graduate Hélène
you might not care a whit about this. and still had a couple of bilingual friends. Combe is now a general
Somebody might be making them learn The process was simple: I had to work and business English trainer
English against their will, and they may think myself on grammar and vocabulary, and in Lyon and St Etienne,
they won’t ever need it. They already hear they would help me with the conversation France.

Hélène took herself back to
school
editorial@elgazette.com 43