April 20

Write down every word I say, or you won’t remember a thing!

We have recently celebrated Semana Santa here in Spain. It’s celebrated during the week before Easter from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and is quite spectacular. Each day there are a number of processions in which people carry huge statues of the Virgin and Jesus to re-tell the story of his death.

In the build-up to Easter, I spent my conversation classes with an adult student talking about Semana Santa and the different types of bands, candles and other paraphernalia associated with the event. As my parents were coming to visit, I was hoping to amaze them with my in-depth knowledge of all things “Semana Santa-ry“.

Unfortunately, when we were watching the processions, I realised that I couldn’t remember half of what my student had told me and cursed myself for not having taken notes during our classes.
“Right,” I said to myself. “After Easter, I’m going to make sure that all my students are taking notes in class and copying down all the vocabulary we use.”

But then I realised that the very student who had been teaching me about Semana Santa rarely if never copies down new vocabulary, and yet he remembers it and uses it quite frequently.

Everybody has different ways of learning – I am one of those who needs to write everything, as I should have learnt after a couple of disastrous lectures at university when I sat in class and hoped to absorb all the information, then left with a blank notebook and a blank mind.

Tags:

Posted April 20, 2009 by Teresa Bestwick in category My thoughts

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*