Friday, August 30, 2013

The Deliberate Art of Practice


HOW many times have you heard the saying, "Practice Makes Perfect?"  Yes, you've heard this cliche numerous times that it no longer means anything to you.  However, if you are a top athlete, artist, musician, dancer, debater, you would know that practice means everything.

People who don't like to practice will never really know the importance of it all.  They want to get better in doing something, but would never really take the time to practice.  Let's take learning a language, for example, like English.  Learning a new language is not just about knowing one day in class and hoping to speak it fluently immediately.  One must do deliberate practice: read, converse, homework.  And did I mention read, converse, and homework? 

I cannot emphasize enough how important reading, conversing, and doing homework are.  There must always be some kind of interaction with English: enroll in a class, watch a movie, hang out with friends and speak in English, and so much more.  One cannot become good in English by speaking Filipino all the time.  As they say, birds of a feather, flock together.  So if your friends are always speaking Filipino, it's time to find new friends.  Well, you don't really have to replace your old friends, just add new friends who are either English speakers or at least trying to improve their English.

So for one last time, no matter how much you want to improve your English, if you do not practice, you will never really improve.

6 comments:

Erin Joan said...

That is true! It is very important to practice your English both in speaking and writing. So reading is very important. :D

Franc Ramon said...

Conversing in English is really very important in business now as we now all cater to international markets.

AIEPRO said...

@Erin, I am convincing my staff and my students to start blogging because it will help them with their English.

@Franc, You're right! We now live in a globalized world, and English is the medium of communication.

Unknown said...

Practice is very important. Sometimes, I'm lazy, so I must force myself to do it.

Ria Hazel said...

True! Practice really makes perfect. And I would also add reading. Problem with today's kids are not reading too much, so they end up being grammatically wrong.

Momee Gee said...

Uhh, practice indeed makes a performance or presentation perfect. Even up to now, my teacher in English 101 always reminds us to practice our report so that whenever we are in front we can successfully finish it without making any errors or mistakes.

I also agree of allowing ourselves to practice english in different means we could possibly enhance it. I prefer watching movies though. hahaha