My goals for 2018 Many people set up goals at the beginning of each year. Unfortunately, most never achieve them. This is a common problem, especially among young people. Including you and me. So, today I’ll to talk to you about my personal story about setting goals. When I was a child all I wanted to do was to play soccer and watch cartoons. I used to spend long hours practicing how to kick the ball. And I spent hundreds of hours watching TV. I'd say I was pretty much a normal happy kid. My only job was to get good grades at school, which I did very well. But, everything changed in my teens. I became a very serious person. I was constantly worried about my own health, my lack of knowledge about how to earn money, how to pick up girls and an extreme fear of the future which caused me a lot of anxiety. By that time, I started to set up goals to build a better future for me and my family. I started by writing down my goals: 1. Become an engineer. 2. Learn English and French. 3. Buy a new house with lots of trees. 4. Travel the world. ...And I wanted to achieve that before age 35. Little did I know about life, mental illnesses and broken hearts. Long story short, I'm 32 and I haven't travelled the world yet. My French is so so, my major is in philosophy and I live with my grandma. But, I've learned that the joy is not in achieving your goals but in the process. I've also learned to set up more specific, achievable goals each year. So, my goals for 2018 are: 1. Learn to speak French fluently. 2. Write essays in English to improve my writing skills (at least once a week) 3. Apply for a higher position in my company. I think these are more attainable goals. Most importantly, I'm focused on enjoying the process right now.

About my journey learning English My love for English started when I was a child. I remember dad teaching me the greetings when I was 5. Fast forward 10 years, I enrolled in an English class. Where the teacher used to speak Spanish most of the time. I used to spend my summer vacations at this academy. I met a lot of people. But, after 2 years of classes, I wasn’t able to keep a basic conversation. Obviously, I wasn't going to give up. I paid undivided attention to my teachers at school and I managed to get very good grades. I was the best student in the English course. But, by the age of 17, after all those years of study, I wasn’t able to speak. One day, I went to a book store and bought a copy of a method for learning English. I went through it with excitement. I finished the book in two months. And, I learned a lot of useful phrases. Which, gave me the confidence to write short stories. The method the author proposes is rather simple. First, you have to learn the words in English that are similar to your mother tongue. They are called cognates. There is a list of 100 words that are written the same in Spanish but pronounced differently. Then, there is a list of the most common verbs and a lot of examples and stories. The idea is to learn the words in context. There is also a list of prepositions with pictures, and again more short stories. At the end of the book there are fixed phrases that the author recommends to memorize. And a blank page where you are supposed to write your goals for learning English. After that, I decided to memorize song lyrics and record myself speaking. Then, I got a scholarship to study in Honduras, where I met many Americans. After my graduation, I went to Nicaragua to work as a school teacher. The principal was American, and he used to invite brigades from the US to work in the community. I told him I spoke English and soon I was working as a translator. Back in my country, I applied for a bilingual position but I got rejected 3 times. So, I decided to take my English to the next level. I started to listen to podcasts in English every day. I did this for 6 months, then I reapplied and got the job. I worked for Hotels.com as a customer service rep. for one year and a half. And, now I teach English at an English academy. Also, I will start working for Microsoft next week helping US customers. I know my English is not perfect. However, I feel confident speaking now. And, I know I can get whatever I want in life if I set my mind to do it.

I can speak English! Last night, I was chatting with a friend of mine from Ecuador. He knows I study English and that I like to help others improve their language skills. Perhaps, because of that, he started to talk about English classes. My friend has never studied English. He has zero knowledge. But, for some reason he told me he spoke English. I was curious to know more about it. So, I started to ask him questions in English. As you might imagine he didn't reply back. 20 minutes later he wrote something in English that didn't make sense. I tried to correct his mistakes but, he told me he didn’t have time for an English class. I didn't understand his behavior. And, I've been thinking about it since this morning. In my opinion, he’s a childish person, pretending to know something he doesn’t. On top of that, he doesn't want to be corrected. He doesn't speak English and that's fine with me. But, this attitude coming from a 40 years old man is not normal. I know it's good to believe in ourselves. For example, I repeat to myself every day that I can speak English like a native. So, maybe, he's doing the same thing now. Who knows! I'm still trying to discover it.

Is it Grammar so necessary? Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the role grammar plays in the language learning process. First, I'd like to say that I like grammar. In fact I'm the kind of person who reads grammar books just for fun. I started to study Spanish grammar when I was 17 years old. And, I find it very interesting. However, after working at an English academy for one month. I've been asking myself if teaching grammar is really so important. Yesterday, we received the visit of a call center company in our academy. They wanted to interview the advanced students to offer them a job. We had everything prepared. The students were motivated. But, none of the students was able to pass the job interview. None! There were 17 advanced students and each of them failed the interview. It was so disappointing. In this academy, they emphasize the importance of grammar so much. At the begging I didn't teach any grammar rule. Because, I don't think it's important when you already have a good comprehension of the language. I think you can learn the structure of a language by listening to interesting audios and reading your favorite books. I'm working as a teacher assistant and I'm doing my best to help the students. I study every day and try to understand the students’ necessities. But, honestly, I’m worried about them. I'd like the principal to understand that we can learn a language the natural way. Just like we learnt our own native language. By listening to our parents and teachers. I speak Spanish perfectly without knowing the grammar rules. I speak French at a basic level now, and I have no idea of how the grammar works. I just listen to interesting podcasts and read my favorite books in French. So, I feel kind of disappointed today. I have to give 2 classes tomorrow morning following the academy grammar method. On top of that, I’m not getting paid yet, because I’m supposed to be in the training period. But, seeing yesterday bad results, I'm thinking about looking for a different place to work. Actually, I just sent my resume to a bigger academy located in a different city. And I got an interview at Google for a customer service position. So, next week I'll have to take a decision. I need to decide whether or not to continue with this traditional academy.