by David Avender For the month of May, our Linguist Learner of the Month was Nang-pan Wong. Nang-pan continues to excel in his English language studies here at The Linguist, and works towards English Fluency even though he lives in Hong Kong - thousands of miles from West Vancouver!
For this month's Linguist Learner of the Month we travel several thousand miles in the opposite direction - eastward and to the Haute Garonne Province of France, and to the township of St. Jean where we find an exceptional Linguist Student, our Linguist Learner of the Month, Lucienne Eichler.
Before she became aware of Steve Kaufmann's book, she told me that she studied four years of English at a high school in France and then two years of English at a bible school. Of her English education, Lucienne remarks, "All those years of studying English I found very discouraging for me. A few years ago my family and I spent 3 1/2 years in Canada. [Associating with English speakers] I found I could not use what I had learned in school! During our stay in Canada, I realized that I was making a lot of mistakes in grammar and in speaking English. I was quite frozen when trying to speak English!" This sort of comment is very common with our new Linguist Students. While most language schools tell you what you must learn (and, for some unknowable reason, make learning that which they say you must learn as boring as possible!) we allow our students to learn from what they find fascinating. And such a fascination consistently inspires hard work, diligent study and a genuine love of language learning. This is how The Linguist system works and this is how The Linguist system succeeds.
Lucienne continues: "When we returned home to France, I learned of Steve's system and, with The Linguist system, I felt that slowly I was able to use words and phrases that I had learned. With this system I could choose the subjects to learn and I could learn like a child learns: learning phrases and using them when I spoke. For the first two months when I became a Linguist student I could really see that I was improving! I noticed several times too that I felt that I was overcoming my complexes. I cannot say that I understand everything in English, but I am able to understand a lot!
I most enjoy reading the articles in The Linguist Library and listening to the audio files. Speaking and pronunciation is now the most difficult part for me, but my happiness with The Linguist system means I will improve with hard work and with time.
When I am asked, 'Do you enjoy The Linguist system?' I answered 'Yes, I really enjoy it and it's not boring at all. All the staff are nice and they're always there when I need them and always ready to help when I'm making mistakes.' Most of all I like the reading part of The Linguist because I can choose from the Linguist library what I want. I always find the items quite interesting, not only to learn new words and phrases, but also to learn more about the subjects." Finally, let me tell you this: I have a Canadian friend and we are emailing each other every single day. A few days ago she emailed me and said that my writing skills are much better. I really do enjoy The Linguist." Lucienne Eichler 18 May 2005, Our Linguist Learner of the Month.
