Languages

Getting hands-on with languages.
When you study a language, you need to get your hands dirty. It could be about cracking the secret key to a text or experimenting with a traditional recipe in the target language. You need to ‘touch’ the language, feel it, experience it, fail at understanding it, try repeatedly and finally succeed. And when you do succeed…well, you are on top of the world! Why do we assume that the best performers in all fields were all born with their talent? Why should we ever lose the enjoyment that we had when we were little kids, when we considered that falling down was (probably the greatest) fun in our games? Let’s stop focusing on the product for a moment and let’s focus on the process. Mastery is obtained through repeated practice, through failing and failing and failing again until we get it right. Every single mistake should be celebrated in languages like a developmental stage. So, while we become competent language speakers, we might as well enjoy it. I wish all languages students plenty of fun and success in their journey.

Fulvia Galigani
Head of Languages

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