Riccardo

Riccardo a second-year student from the course of Applied Science. He told me about his experience as English learner. He has been studying English since he was 6, but he doesn’t like it very much, mainly because he finds it rather difficult. As a matter of fact he feels that he would find it very hard to learn a second foreign language together with English: he is sure that this would cause him a lot of confusion both in the grammar and in the vocabulary.

In his opinion, the most difficult skills to develop are speaking and listening: when you talk  you don’t have time to think about the accuracy of your sentences and when you listen, especially when you talk to native speakers, they often use words you do not know and/or they speak too fast. For this reason he has recently started  listening to many English songs and  watching  movies and tv series in English in order to improve his skills. Of course , he still needs subtitles, although he says that it depends on the type of movie and on the actors‘ accent. As for the songs, he sometimes needs to look for the text of the lyrics.

He admits that grammar is important,  too. If if you want to improve your knowledge of a language and achieve a higher level. However he believes that the best way to improve is to spend time in English- speaking countries, so you have the opportunity to talk, to listen, to learn idioms and some useful slang words that  you are not normally taught at school. Besides, when you travel abroad you meet a different culture and a different way of living and this is important for your personal growth.

In conclusion, in Riccardo’s opinion, it is essential to learn English because it  allows you to communicate with foreign people. He would like to be able to speak fluently and to understand what he is told, while grammatical  mistakes are acceptable in everyday conversation.