Spreading the Merlin love

[wiseheart]

I've lent the novelization to the pilot episode - a book I got from the_wild_iris to one of our eight-grade students. I got him hooked on Merlin, because he looks exactly as Bradley James must have looked when he was 14. We have this little insider joke that I call him my Prince - and he laughs his head off.

Anyway, I'm very impressed. He actually faced the challenge to read an English book, and one that hadn't been dumbed down to the level of foreing people who're still learning the language. He says that the first 30 pages were brutal - he had to look up every second word. But after that, words started reapparing, and now he's actually enjoying himself.

I'm very proud of him - and a little proud of myself. Considering how much this generation dislikes reading, for a 14-year-old to start reading a book in a foreign language and not giving up when he had to face the first difficulties, it's quite the feat. And I'm not even his English teacher.

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Well done you (and him!), that's brilliant.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Motivation is a great thing. ;)

By me, it was Star Trek...

[artemis10002000]

That's cool! Fandom was how I learnt English, too. Well, I learnt it before in school, of course, but it's only when I got into fandom that I actually developed interest in learning English.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's all about motivation. ;)

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Me, too. He is a great kid. Even with a ground level language proficiency exam, reading in a foreing language is no easy feat.

It's the rare moments like this when I realize again why am I still doing this job.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Good for you - and him! It's so hard to stay motivated when you're in the early stages of learning a foreign language, because your vocabulary and grammar are so limited at that point that finding something readable that's actually interesting is nearly impossible. How cool that fandom is providing the gateway for this student!

(That makes me think that perhaps I ought to seek out some German Tolkien fanfiction in preparation for my fall trip. It would have to be more interesting than the absolutely inane dialogs in the introductory German books I'm struggling with right now...)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm a German teacher - that's what I do for a living. I can make correspondence with you in German, if you want to... and considering the so-called vocabulary of my students, I'm sure you'll do brilliantly.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Be careful - I just may decide to take you up on that offer! (If I can ever find the time to resume my online social life, that is. Work just keeps getting crazier and crazier.)