Personal Blogs

The moment of truth has arrived.  I have my course books and the website will be available later this week.   At that point I will be able to see my assignments for the next year.   Two speaking assignments, two written assignments and an exam.  I am terrified of the spoken ones, as I am worried about my pronunciation, about sounding awkward as if I am reading, or having long pauses while I gather the words in my head.  The writing shouldn’t be so hard, but I am finding it hard to write coherently in another language.  The sentences are clumsy and awkward like a five year old’s first story.

I’m not even thinking about the exam.  I still have terrible memories of oral French exam at school.  Complete emptiness inside my head, I probably couldn’t have answered questions in English, let alone French. 

I’m starting to wonder why I am doing this to myself.  I have always thought that I am good at languages.  I pick up words easily and grammar fits into to my head without too much pain.  But somehow there is a gap between playing with a language and using it for real, which I find incredibly daunting.

The opposite of success is not failure; the opposite of success is not trying. So here's to all of us starting to learn a new language this autumn and to success in all its different forms.