Platy has been studying English since the elementary school. She used to
attend extra English courses with a mother tongue assistant, she enjoyed
learning English because activities were very engaging, also because the
teachers tried to approach the language in a very spontaneous way and they
did not only focus on the formal and grammatical aspects. In order to improve
her pronunciation she watches TV series and when she has the opportunity
she speaks with other people.
If she wants to say something and she is not able to express a concept, she
tries to rephrase it , if she does not know a specific word she tries to describe
it, using phrases like “It’s a kind of…”, for example if it is an object trying to
explain what it is used for in English.
Reflecting on her school experience, she thinks that the best way to learn
and to improve linguistic competencies is speaking and thinking about the
language only as a vehicle to communicate with other people, instead of
concentrating only on the grammatical aspect.
According to my friend Platy the most challenging aspect is becoming fluent
and keeping the conversation going in a natural way. She added that
practicing listening and speaking is very useful.
Generally speaking everyone studies English in Italy, but not many students
actually have opportunities to speak the language in their private life. She
underlined that thinking about her career it would be very important to get in
touch with foreign people, and nowadays it is essential to be ready for this
challenge. She also added that also reading and writing are important when it
comes to our future.
She pointed out that mastering grammar is useful because this allows you to
feel at your own ease when you want to communicate. Furthermore, she told
she did not remember having problems to understand and speaking English
with native speakers, maybe she could easily overcome some difficulties.
Apart from English, Platy also studies German, and she spent a semester in
Germany, she stressed the importance of having experiences abroad, in fact,
when you are alone, you have to make efforts and communicate with people.
She realized that especially on these occasions, also thanks to your own
creativity you improve your skills. She studies three languages: English,
German and Spanish and she attends a linguistic program in my school. She
believes that thanks to the period she spent abroad, she is more fluent.
She spoke English with foreign people many times, and also when she was in
Germany. There we had indeed English classes, which mainly followed a
communicative method. At first, also with her host sister. At the beginning it
was a little bit strange because she used to speak English only at school. In
Germany it was a normal way to communicate with other people, who didn't
understand Italian (even if ordinarily she spoke German).
When you spend a period abroad, you have the opportunity to discover a lot
of new things, places, aspects of yourself and people. At the beginning you
don’t know what you have to start with, what’s the best thing to do... the only
way to discover it, is simply to try, and it’s thanks to this challenge you get the
most from the experience.
Concerning culture, at first she said she is not sure that getting to know the
culture of a country can influence language competences, but then she
realized that often traditions create idioms and so in conclusion she assumed
that cultural aspects definitely have an impact on the language.
Every country has different cultures or just traditions, habits, and all these
things make every place special and different. All those students she made
friends with had enriched her. She appreciated and enjoyed her semester
abroad and she thinks it was a great opportunity.