Monday, November 12, 2007

Passion is Important



This week I have a new teacher at the Casa Xelaju Spanish school. She is much better.

Last week, my old teacher never smiled. She had no passion for teaching. But my new teacher smiles often. She enjoys talking. She enjoys communicating. When I talk, she looks at me. She listens. It seems like she likes her job.

At Effortless English, we talk a lot about methods. Teaching methods are very important. We use the best learning methods. We use the most successful methods. We always choose methods based on independent research, so you learn easily and quickly.

However, method is not the only important thing. Passion and enthusiasm are equally important. The teacher must LOVE teaching. The teacher must have passion. The teacher must be interested in teaching.

If the teacher does not have passion, the student will feel it. The student will quickly become bored and tired. The student will lose motivation. This happened to me last week. After only one week with a bored teacher, I was ready to quit the school. On the other hand, after only one day with a good teacher, I feel motivated and happy about learning Spanish.

Our attitudes are very important-- both as teachers and students. We must be passionate, positive, and enthusiastic. As students, we must find teachers who LOVE teaching. We must find materials that are interesting to us. We must take care of our emotions and motivations.

That's why I try to be enthusiastic and excited in my lessons. Sometimes I even shout! Feel my energy! Become more excited about English! Enjoy the stories and ideas and don't focus on grammar!

This is probably the most important "method" of Effortless English: Passion!



Listen To This Article at:
The Effortless English Podcast.

7 comments:

junalex said...

My English study is very poor although I am studying the last year of my University.
I think that because of I am too lazy in study, in life, i have no try in everything.
Do u believe me?

TutU said...

Thanks for your advises. I'm now learning english but my E is not very well. yesterday, I gave my email. But, I only receive one ,mail from u. why is it? and I want to ask, what thing let u doing this word?

fatma said...

hello ,
thanks for helping me and other people to learn english , anyway , my problem is that whenever i want to speak english i forget all the words !! i mean the fear is stopping me from speaking english naturally !! i have to think before i speak i mean i have to make sentences first in my mind and then speack it . i really want to speack english naturally and i hope you will help me to do it .

arunya said...

Hi Mr.Hoge,
Thank you for your help.
you are great.everybody thinking such you, no proplem in the world.keep it up.I hope I WII learn english
thank you.

elammraji@yahoo.ca

AJ Hoge said...

Laziness

Ha! Junalex, I believe you when you say you are lazy. However, Im probably lazier. I also hate to "study". Honestly, most people do.

Why? Because "study" is boring. When we say "study", we usually think about memorizing, or doing exercises in textbooks, or going to boring classes.

I used to hate to "study" Spanish for these reasons. But now, I don't study-- I listen to interesting things (in Spanish) and I read interesting things (in Spanish). That's all. Its fun... and Im learning much better than when I tried to "study" in the past.

So don't study. Be effortless! Enjoy English. Listen to interesting things. Read interesting things. Enjoy my lessons. Relax!

AJ Hoge said...

Email Problem
If you miss one of the 7 Rules emails, check the "bulk" or "spam" folder in your email... it might be in there.

If its not, you may need to enter your email address again to get the emails.

Sorry about the inconvenience :)

hiroshi said...

Hi AJ,

how are you doing?

by the way, you look much better on this photo taken for this blog post. so, I suggest that you replace the old one you put on your resume ( it does not really look like AJ as I know) with this one that seems much closer to real AJ.

I have been in Sao paulo, Brsil, for the last 5 days. wow, Brasil seems very amazing country indeed!
the only problem is, however that due to the weakening US dollar in which I have most of my savings and strong Brasil currency, real, many things such as transports, foods, are as expensive as those of Japan or North america.

Other than that, I find this country fascinating.

enjoy your trip.

chao.

hiroshi