Learning a language can change your life!

Welcome to The Grammar Goats’ first blog post

In the coming weeks and months, I will be posting useful grammar to practice, important phrases and vocabulary to learn as well as study advice. All this content is designed to help you become an effective, polite English communicator in your hospitality role. It will also make you a better student, able to study by yourself and continue along your English language journey.

“Learning any language is not a destination but a journey.” – Jean Brunet

There is always something you don’t know, an element of grammar, a word or a phrase. There is always an accent that you can’t understand well or an idiom that is new and that you have never heard before. Just when you think you’ve mastered a language, you meet another student who is better than you! Practice makes perfect.

But to be effective and polite communicators in any language, we need more than just practice. We must consider and notice language, learn when it is appropriate and not appropriate to use a different language. We must learn how to say language out loud, both in isolation but also in a sentence. We must learn intonation patterns, rhythm and stress. We must give ourselves real-life opportunities to try out this language. We must not be afraid to make mistakes.

Making mistakes is part of any journey and through mistakes, we learn and become better. Above all, we must relax and enjoy studying a language. Learning a new language can open up so many new possibilities. We can make new friends, fall in love, learn about and experience new cultures and seek out new professional opportunities. Learning another language gives us a new identity. Learning another language can be transformative, both personally and professionally.

“He who has two languages has two souls.” – Charlemagne