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Something is wrong in education
As a student I never liked language subjects. Portuguese, English, French. But now I regret not have taken more advantage of it. Specially the French. Portuguese is my main language and English is so global that you would learn it anyway. But French and others escaped.
Although I regret not have learned more languages sooner, I believe the blame is not entirely on me, neither on all the students that struggle with the education system. In fact I believe there is something very wrong about how education currently works.
I believe we all are beings of emotion and expression need. And of course, languages are means of expression. But by focusing in the inner function of the language artifacts, like grammar nerds do, the fundamental purpose is lost, and with it goes all the passion of learning.
I can tell you the better way to have learned French was to have found a French girlfriend. Need is the mother of invention they say. That is true, but also, learning is something emotional. We are not robots, our emotional apparatus is fundamentally involved with learning. This is very well known. Old school teaching relied on physical violence to enforce students to learn. Pain is a very good persuasive. Our nervous system does a good job sending a very powerful message when something painful should be avoided, and we understand it very well.
