I am a hopeless romantic and I am also extremely nosey, I am curious about the details of other people's lives so I love classics that talk about the ins and outs and complex family and social relationships. My favourite novel is 'Wuthering Heights' after all. So a story about a bird striving to achieve perfection in flight might not immediately seem my cup of tea. However there are somes elements of 'John Livingston Seagull' that strike a chord with me. "You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way". My childhood was full of routine, week after week was structured by school, homework, clubs and friends. I sometimes felt that the weeks stretched unchangingly ahead of me. I am timid and still do suffer from shyness but I recognize that this stability gave me inner confidence in myself and my basic principals. My mother was a primary school teacher and as a teenager, everyone told me I should be a teacher too, like her. So I determined NOT to teach, not because I didn't want to be like my Mum, she is lovely, but because I wasn't going to do what other people said, I was going to do my own thing. At the age of 17/18, in the last year of high school, I was given a book listing all university courses available to students in the UK. I had previously agreed with my best friend Amber that we would have gone to the same university so that we could both study history and live together, but flipping through the book the British Institute in Paris jumped out at me and I couldn't get it out of my head. I knew instantly that I had to go there. The entry in the book spoke only about gap year experiences but when I contacted the institute they told me that they were planning a new degree course for the following year and invited me to apply. I was very attached to my parents ( I cried when I went to Guide camp I missed my Mum so much! ) and certainly not so mature or independent but in the ignorance of my youth I was somehow sure that I could cope with living in a whole other country where I knew no one and was shy to speak! It was a very strong experience, everything was new, the five other students on my course and I were like guinea pigs. It was a very different scenario from my friends in the U.K. I had many wobbles in the first year but that summer I decided to stay in Paris for the summer, so sure was I still of my choice. I have been blessed with a great imagination. As a child Amber and I used to spend hours exploring different lives and realities from the safety of our own homes. I loved languages even them, and I dreamt of marrying an Italian and having bi-lingual children with the elegant names I read in novels or saw in musicals like Anastasia or Francesca. Wait a minute, that's exactly what I did! The other lesson that John Livingston Seagull teaches us is that our search for fulfilment is not complete until we share our knowledge with others. When I finished university I was unsure about what I should do. I thought back to my most fulfilling work experience and realised that it was when I worked for a language school in Paris. I didn't teach there but I helped the teachers with their administration. I also remembered that I had learnt a lot volunteering in a charity shop as a teenager. So I put two and two together and looked for opportunities to volunteer in the community where I was living in London at the time. I started volunteering with an adult education centre and I immediately felt an empathy with the students that were going through a similar experience that I had been through, experiencing difficulty in practical, every day situations. As a student in Paris it was my 'job' to learn French so I spent years trying out different methods of learning vocabulary and using it in conversation. So all the advice I give you about learning English is based on my personal experience of learning and teaching over the past 17 years. Before my children were born I lived in Milan which is a great city but my students told me that because of work commitments there it was difficult to spend time with your children. I immediately felt that this was not right for me. Many people leave Sicily in search of work and return in the summer for holidays. But I have done the opposite, I live in Sicily and go to England on holiday! Because my family comes first for me. I live in a very simple way, but I prioritise what is most important for me. What is your passion? Who are you? What is standing in your way or preventing you from being yourself? I would love to read your comments below.
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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