The sky is the limit

I believe it was during my sophomore year in college that I heard one of my professors assert that all of us (her English students) would always have a Spanish accent. She claimed that a realistic aim for us would be to develop an "elegant" Spanish accent.

Even though I heard that remark a long time ago it is still etched in my memory. I was only a student trying to learn English as best I could but, somehow, I knew she was wrong. To be fair, it is true that most people never quite shake off their L1 accent and, by the way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that (as long as it doesn't hinder effective communication). I also agree with the general notion that we should strive to attain an elegant form of expression. However, I do take issue with the way some people try and set boundaries for others. Oftentimes they're just projecting (this professor of mine happened to have an obvious Spanish accent which she probably considered to be elegant). Of course we should not ride the pendulum to the other end of the spectrum either. The old Nike slogan ("impossible is nothing") aimed at inspiring customers but, in my view, failed to be reasonable. I'm afraid, that, whether we like it or not, some things are clearly impossible. The sensible advice seems to be encapsulated in a number of clichés that we tend to dismiss out of hand: "try your best", "go the distance", "don't give up", "work hard", etc. And if you think all that stuff is useless... well, you are dead wrong. I have personally experienced that amazing results can be achieved when you don't give up. But don't take it from me. Just look around. There are countless success stories of people who worked really hard and got far.

I guess I have decided to write about this because your essays have made me so happy. I have often had students come up to me and complain about how hard it is to write English at a C1 level. They appear to have a rather pessimistic attitude. The truth is that most of you are on your way to achieving that advanced command of the language. As a matter of fact some of you have already crossed the border into C1 land. It's not as difficult as you may think. Just remember what I said in the classroom: the secret lies in borrowing or simply stealing from other speakers/writers. That's exactly what little children do. It's monkey see, monkey do. I'll talk about this in my next post. Anyway, I just wanted to say that your last batch of essays is proof of how much you've improved your writing skills. So congratulations, everyone!

And now allow me to give you another set of clichés that I have always subscribed to: try and be as good as you can be. Don't let anyone tell you how far you can get. Find that out yourself. The sky is the limit!