How do you get to the Apollo?

My friend Derrick has a post up that I've been meaning to write for a while. It's something every foreign teacher seems to run across a few times a week.

A student (mine or not, doesn't matter) will ask how they can improve their oral English. Not their English, no one seems to want to practice reading or writing. Sometimes they ask about listening. I used to give a fairly detailed response, based on my experience learning Italian and trying to learn Chinese. It involved immersing oneself in the language, watching TV and listening to the radio, using a voice recorder and getting books on tape.

I get a lot of nods and open-mouthed stares. I don't think much of it sticks. I'm pretty sure I could be explaining string theory and I'd get the same response ("OK, so get this: the universe as we know it actually exists in 11 dimensions and matter is made up of tiny loops of energy--strings--that vibrate in different ways...." Don't get on me if this isn't exact. I'm not a physicist).

Derrick goes through a similar run-down:

I say that they should practise English outside the classroom. They say they have no way to do so. I say try English corner. They say not enough foreigners go there. I say that they don’t necessarily need foreigners in order to improve their English, I say they could spend 10 minutes a day practising English with each other. They say they have no time. I say they could do it at lunch time. They say it is too strange to speak English with another Chinese person. Excuses, excuses, excuses! I say they need to get over it and just speak to each other.

These days, I've narrowed it down to a one-liner: "Same way you get to the Apollo. Practice, practice, practice."

Then I get a strained look and the student usually reaches for his electronic dictionary, the one every student seems to have and likes to use instead of actually studying, looking for a translation of "practice."

I don't think they've found it, yet.

Before: Thankful | After: "To kill those who do not remember history."