Why I started to learn English language

When I was a teenager, I started to learn English language. I wanted to understand the lyrics of The Beatles‘ songs. So I bought a textbook „English for self-study“ and tried to learn the basics. My dictionary became my best friend, I looked every word up.  Thus I was able to translate every song. This method of translation wasn’t too fast  but  I celebrated a little victory.  I loved this group and I felt closer to them. My love for The Beatles has survived the ages.

This year we enjoyed a reunion after thirty years of leaving our college. In this picture you can see a group The Pangea - The Beatles, me and the  madness of my classmates.  

That’s great. Baetlemania burst out in a hotel not far from Prague.  We were dancing and singing all night, we were so young again.

The next day we rode the wave of adrenaline, so we visited the castle of Křivoklát, the beautiful and monumental castle of the Czech kings.

Then we took a pleasant walk around the castle walls with a fascinating view of the surrounding area.

The keys of Křivoklát castle (courtesy of the castle guide)

However, we were heavily recovering the next week. If you are over fifty years old, you can dance only one night per a week and then you need a long holiday.

Actually, let us go back to today’s topic. I put down the „English for self–study“  because it was boring and teenagers have different priorities.

Another period of my learning started when my children started to learn English at school and I had to correct their homework. That’s why I signed in a regular language school. I buckled down and studied hard. However, my boys learned much faster and I gave up my effort.

Never mind, let’s take a look together at the English textbooks used in the eighties of the last century.

The third period of my learning came when I found a new job and started working in a new company. Everybody in this company studied a foreign language. So it seemed that I also have to take up some further education.This education was fully paid by the company. People often don’t appreciate things that come for free. We weren’t too diligent. Eventually I found out I didn’t make any progress and I dropped out these lessons.

When my children grew up und started to invite their foreign friends to our house, I decided to buckle down again. I have a lot new textbooks and especially many entertaining series on TV. Maybe I’ll be more successful with Sheldon, Amy, Leonard and the others. 

Here we have our textbooks and a lot of books in English language. This isn’t a public library but a table  in our kitchen.

I am writting this article because this is my homework. I hope some of my boys will be so kind and check it. (Both of them checked it. Thanks a lot!)