STUDY AS A FORM OF GROWTH
This article was written to those teenagers who think
that things come from the sky – and our schools are full of them – and was
published in a house organ of an English school. Our purpose was to awake young
readers – though probably only occasional readers – to the imperative need to
prepare for the future, because very soon they will have to face the battle of
the strongest. Without the slightest pretense of having written another
abominable self-help text, I am fully aware that the article is also tailored for
irresponsible adults who think of enriching only materially – certainly betting
in lotteries – and forget that without a cultural background the new rich man
is nothing more than a rich idiot.
Many years ago,
even being nothing more than a poor player, I decided that chess would be favorite
pastime.
I made
arrangements with a friend to play the game every day after work so that we
could enjoy, practice and improve. He was what we call “a good player”.
Every day after
five, the games played out naturally and I, of course, lost all of them.
It took such a
large scale and defeats became so routine that I decided it was time to change
the course of my story on the board.
One day Boris –
this was his name – had to travel, so we took a break of three weeks, the time
it took for me to buy two or three books and start studying, devoting part of
my time to the openings, part to the development and part to the end of the
games.
I learned a lot
from Ruy Lopez, Alekhine, Capablanca and other masters until it was time to
test my new profile against my friend.
To my surprise –
and his – I systematically began to win the games, some even without much
difficulty. After a few defeats, Boris questioned my sudden growth in chess.
I told him what
I had done and showed him the books. After explaining he scratched his head and
solemnly declared that he would also begin to study.
This episode was
nothing special, but it left me two lessons.
First, however
much you think you know, there is always room to know a lot more, that is, we
are all ignorant and the doors of knowledge are unlimited. “The only thing I
know is that I know nothing”, had already said Aristotle.
Second, the more
you enhance tour knowledge, the greater the chances of you becoming a winner.
This happens with chess and this happens with any matter in life, including the
domain of foreign languages.
Every kind of
learning is primarily a matter of will.
Unlike other
kinds of study – chemistry, physics, biology – that requires a lot of reading,
some memorization and a good dose of patience, studying languages is more a
pleasant question of being connected to the things that surround us.
For example, you
learn English every day watching TV, reading billboards, enjoying shopping
windows and shop fronts, listening to music, surfing the Internet or trying to
understand that instruction manual for that electronic device you just
purchased.
And there’s more:
when you join a classroom, you practice the language with the teacher and your
classmates, discover curiosities and particularities of a different culture and
have fun discovering new things. In other words, you differentiate yourself
from the ordinary, become a person with a more settled future, thus really
becoming part of the globalized world we are living in, and are prepared to
face
challenges here or anywhere in the world.
We should not
settle for setbacks just because others are not succeeding. What we have to do
is study, regardless the form and method, to ensure our place within the
competitive society in which we live.
This is how I
balanced my strength with my friend Boris.
