I`ve just come across your website and find it really helpful. Well done! (As I skimmed through the posts I found out that everyone kind off tells you that, so I hope I am not being tedious)
Anyway, my name is Dominik, my nickname Dotti, and I was born and raised in Austria. I`ve been living in England, Manchester, for 2 and a half years now, but I have only recently begun to develop an interest in the language. I want to take the CAE this winter and the CPE(fingers crossed) next summer.
At the moment I?m doing an full time English course, which hopefully will prepare me for my exams. However, as there are a lot of other students in my class, my teacher is struggling answering all of our questions, and believe me I?ve always got a lot. Therefore this forum seems to be a good addition to my couse.
I am looking forward to some interesting discussions and sending all of you my regards.
I’m interested in what you said about CAE and CPE. I took a look at some website and it sounds cool to get a certificate like this. I’m wondering how many certificates on earth do we have to get?! Sometimes I do think people are busy getting their certificates as a prove of an idividual skill. It’s good to get it, and I wish you good luck on it! Do you have to work in England so that you would like to take CAE and CPE?
I love language, just that sometimes the more I dig, the more frustrated I get. I just found here last night and I look forward to discussing language with learners or teachers here.
I think the reason why there are so many different test and certificates is that there is an awful lot of money involved. Since English is becoming more and more important, and has already become a lingua franca in many parts of the world, everybody wants a piece of the cake.
I would like to become an English teacher, hence the CPE. I have just read that you are an English teacher. What are your experiences? Do you like it?
Besides I really like what you said about language
I share your feelings on this. Isn?t it the more you get to know a language you see how little you actually know about it. It?s a bit like swimming into an ocean you first took for a lake. (I hope I am still talking sense)
I think so that the language learning has commercialized mainly in some countries. I attended summer session in Berkeley, California 5 years ago. I didn’t take language course but a few regular class that the school authority gives you credits when you accomplish your courses. I took business communication, marketing and American culture. I had great fun in American culture becasue we didn’t have to go to physical classroom but to take the BART( their subway) to SanFrancisco, enjoy the culture itself. Terrific!
I have been teaching English for a couple of years, I was a personal tutor of several students until 2004. I am doing a full-time job now. Different classes and levels sometimes strain my brian, but I love it just because of English, the language. Could you tell me more why you would like to choose to be a language teacher as a career?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Exactly! Plus, the nearner on my way to a lunitic asylum.
If I was forced to pin down some features of mine, I would say I was passionate, eager for knowledge, and a bit stubborn. Why am I telling you that? - you might ask (incidentally I ?ve never claimed to know anything about punctuation, so bear with me). Let me quote one of my favourite authors to explain
“Words a the most powerful of weapons if you use them properly - they’ll cut through anything. But what’s the good of that if the things you write about have no power in them?..” - Aldous Huxley
People nowadays want to learn English(whatever that is) to pass an exam or to get a better job, which is to some extent understandable, since English on the way of becoming a lingua franca. But one should never forget that there is much more to a language than that. Whenever you learn a foreign language, it’s like opening the door to another universe, think of all the knowledge and wisdom you can suddenly access. In my opinion too many people are oblivious to this very important fact, I feel very passionate about.
Being a teacher enables you to share your ideas an views with other people, some of my qualities may rub off on other people and the same, hopefully, vice versa. This would be good opportunity to still my thirst for knowledge.
These are just a few of the reasons I was toying with the thought of becoming a teacher and of course there are many more, like loads of holidays, not having to do anything, excellent rates of pay (don’t worry, I am just joking).
