Learning And Living For Fun

When I’m not writing this blog, writing songs or hanging out in cafes here in Granada, I teach English which can be an interesting job and at times, quite challenging, especially when presented with students who lack any kind of motivation whatsoever. However on those occasions when you have a class who really want to be there and learn something, it can be a revelation. I’ve just had the good fortune to have a class just like that and it was a wonderful experience.

There are four students in the class between the ages of 60 and 74 doing the class because they not only have the time, but most importantly, they have the motivation and really want to learn. Unlike some students, they don’t have to, they just want to and that makes things so much better for everyone.

Their linguistic level is quite low, but they are just so keen to learn and every mistake is just another opportunity to have a laugh with each other and say how difficult English is compared to Spanish. And all this in Spanish of course! But when there is progress and they have one of those lightbulb moments, it feels fantastic to have helped them move forward.

What is lovely about having this class and spending time with them is that their enthusiasm is so infectious, so much so that they inspire me to be more like them.

The strange thing is that although I’m officially teaching them/facilitating their learning, I find that I’m learning much more from them about life and how having an enthusiastic and positive attitude to both living and learning without any specific goal other than doing it for fun and in the moment can be the best thing to do.