domingo, 28 de agosto de 2011

An appetite for learning

What skills do you have?
Can you drive, ride a bike, cook, skateboard, paint?
When did you start learning English?
How did you start learning any of the skills you have?
Did anyone teach you how to do any of the skills you have now?
Have you ever taught a skill to anyone?
Do you know anyone who is really skillful at doing something?
Why are they so good?

It would be a good idea that you answered the questions above with someone who speaks English, so that you can also practise your oral English while thinking about the topic of learning.

A few weeks ago Larry Ferlazzo published this video on his blog about the key factors to learn English or any other skill for that matter: Motivation, perseverance.

Watch the video and see if you can name all the activities the protagonist gets involved in. Have you tried any of them? Are you good at any of them?


On a different level, it is the same idea as NBA player Steve Nash is trying to convey in his famous video You gotta practice.

Watch the commercial and fill in the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.


Wow, good kick!
If you spend so many hours by yourself (1) ... ,a lot of stuff goes through your mind.
If it's you trying to incorporate everyone on the (2) ... in some way, whether you're trying to (3) ... half of them, or accentuate, you know, half of them, it makes the game a lot more fun.
It's such a creative (4) ... to try to encompass all those different moving (5) ...  .
Get the passion and the appreciation for the (6) ...   ... of soccer easily translated to basketball.
If you wanna be good, you gotta practice.

Key:
1 shooting 2 field 3 deceive 4 outlet 5 parts 6 finer points