I saw a really good promotional DVD recently, called Making a World of Difference. It contains the thoughts and experiences of people from various walks of life, with the recurrent theme of how language learning impacts our lives in positive ways. School students, uni students, bilingual children and parents, radio broadcasters, lawyers, chefs, viticulturists, translators and musicians - all have been touched by foreign languages and cultures.I really needed to see this. After having a bad run of luck with LOTE at my prac schools, the disillusionment presented in my methodology class, and the general lack of regard for languages by fellow students, I was doubting why I ever threw my lot in with the obviously last-decade, unappreciated LOTE bandwagon. Seeing this DVD reminded me that it's ok to be passionate about this, that it still is something important worth fighting for, and that there remains a need for bilingualism in the world today.
Any comments would be much appreciated...
- What do you think of bilingualism or the study of other languages?
- Does it have a place in today's English world?
- What's your experience (I can handle it if you want to dis LOTE)?
- Am I crazy for being passionate about languages???
