For me, the school year ends on Monday.
Well, it almost ends. I will still teach online for several more weeks.
I have been in the classroom for nearly 20 years. During those years, I have discovered one of the best ways to learn another language.
Skip class.
I’m serious.
I have taught pre-school children all the way up to college students.
Classrooms are full of distractions. There are constant interruptions, restroom requests, pencil sharpenings, and paper shufflings. Then there are the silly questions. Students who were not paying attention will raise their hands to ask the teacher to explain a new concept. It will likely be the concept the teacher just finished explaining. Remember, the student with the hand in the air wasn’t paying attention.
Perhaps most sinister, there will be peer pressure. Your peers will attempt to keep you from succeeding. I have never understood this. Whether I understand this or not, it is there. Peer pressure is common in the classroom.
I also teach online. Students in my online classes see the screen before them. They see the text we are working with. They hear my voice. They are essentially receiving one on one instruction… even though they are in a large class. The students do not interact with each other. I have disabled this feature. There are virtually no distractions. There is no peer pressure. My online students far exceed my classroom students.
There are many ways to learn a new language. You could join an online language class. You could teach yourself online. You could hire a tutor. You could listen to podcasts.
If you are learning a new language, one of the worst things you can do is place yourself in a classroom.
Learn faster. Learn on your own. Learn online. Learn with a tutor.
Just stay out of the classroom.
