It’s been a good, albeit intense, first week for American English Plus, masha’Allah.
But the American English Plus team – in order to start teaching English as a foreign language in a way that is good and true and right – felt we had to make some changes or, to paraphrase Deepak Chopra, instead of thinking outside the box, we needed to get rid of the box.
And so we did.
And in the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Do one thing every day that scares you,” we have truly started.
And opening the AEP Language Center is scary. But isn’t that also what learning and using English in Algeria all about?
As Algerians who are working to master English, isn’t that act of acquiring English a means of stepping outside the box, of thinking in a different way and of viewing the world from a different perspective? Isn’t learning and using English a way of reaching out to other cultures, of learning from them and of teaching Algerian culture in return? And sometimes, isn’t that stepping out disconcerting and, well, scary?
But is scary bad? Or is scary when one really starts living? Isn’t scary, that path of what is not comfortable and predictable and safe, an important journey in its own right?
So, my question is this: really, as English learners, what is outside your box? What is your goal? Is your goal – when you step outside your language box, and walk around in your new linguistic environment – is your goal really a final ending point? A certain TOEFL score? A diploma? Is a certain level of English your absolute destination?
Or isn’t it the process of learning what truly matters? Isn’t the act of learning, of growing, of expanding your mental horizons what is so vital, so important and so real? Isn’t the process of doing something new, something difficult or challenging or unusual or brave – isn’t that very act the thing that is important? Doesn’t the process itself become the beautiful destination?
Vincent van Gogh wondered, “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
By learning English you can attempt to understand the thoughts of others quite different from yourself; you can begin to build bridges of understanding, of comprehension, of communication, of clarity. You can begin to connect with the world around you, to explain, to explore, to expand.
So, for those of you who struggle to conquer English, who strive so hard to take great, big bites of this juicy, unpredictable, toothsome language – courage! You’ve taken your first steps to seeing and understanding and articulating the world — your beautiful world – in a new, fresh way.
When you step out of your box, when you use English as your door (or perhaps another means), you can open up new horizons for yourself - go beyond those – and then, as W. Clement Stone said, you can
“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”
Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night