Thee Brida Journal 03/20 Week 03

+ The Brida Journal Email : [email protected] www.journal.brida.eu Week 03/2020 The journal for learners of English, by learners of English To do, or not to do? What do you want to do in English? What do a cat, foreign language lessons and an exhibition have in common? The three are unrelated. A little lateral thinking will help you can make a connection. If you don’t have a cat, it might not be so obvious. It starts with a kitten. Two years ago, whilst going for a walk in our neighbourhood, my wife picked up an abandoned kitten which was in a very bad state. The next morning, we took the kitten to the local animal shelter. They told us it would have a better chance of survival with us. She moved into our bathroom, snarled and hissed at us, but eagerly gobbled up the food we gave it. On Monday, we drove to the vet. One hour later and €160 spent, she moved into our house permanently. Observing a kitten becoming a “catten” becoming a cat, is fascinating. Perhaps I am a bad teacher because I don’t teach her anything. I just provide an environment for her to flourish. She gets fed, learns to interact with our other two cats and she does what cats do: catching mice, redecorating the house by tearing down the wallpaper, achieving a lot of sleep and being very picky about the food we give her. We don’t send her to a cat school because there is no such thing. She learns instinctively by doing things. Now, she is learning to play football. She skids and slides across the across the living room floor, kicking a cloth ball around. She is learning how to do it, by herself. Sometimes she crashes into furniture, bumps her head against a table leg. She is having fun doing it and she makes us laugh as we observe her. Of course, her football training will translate into the skill of catching mice. Learning a foreign language. Before Christmas, I asked a class of mine; “What do you want to do in English?” To make things easier, the participants could choose from a list. After making their choices, we went “shopping”, “planned a trip”, “read an article” (and discussed it). All very ordinary things. All activities were done in the Brida environment. The “shopping” was done in a real online shop in the Brida Bazaar, the trip was planned on a travel website and the article was provided by someone who had written it for the Brida Journal. 1