** Student of the Season - Spring 2019 **
Meily is our student of the season this spring. He is currently in year 9 at Ballakermeen and is studying Spanish in his free time. Meily wanted to learn Spanish as he thinks everyone should learn languages; as Spanish is more useful than French and German and he’s already learning Mandarin at school he though it was the perfect choice for him. Meily saw an Instagram post Private Spanish Tuition put up about how if you can speak Spanish and English you can communicate with 80% of the world and with his Mandarin, we are guessing he will be able to communicate with at least 99% of the world.
Meily cites listening as the most helpful tool when learning a language; by watching Narcos on Netlfix and listening to podcasts he practices his accent and learns great vocabulary. He prefers listening and repeating rather than studying from paper. Grammar is Meily’s hardest aspect of learning Spanish as he finds the verb endings and conjugations difficult to remember (although we’d never know as he always has them nailed down correctly). Meily has so far grasped the present tense including irregulars and has just finished learning the preterite tense and their irregulars which most of us know are tricky.
Meily loves engaging in the cultural lessons we do, his favourite being learning about the ‘Dia de los Muertos’ in Mexico which we did over Halloween weekend and had a great time learning about the altars, cemeteries and cultural traditions of Mexico. Meily would love to travel to Spain more and maybe complete the historic walking routes, the ‘Camino de Santiago’ is on his bucket list. Meily does travel to Spain with his parents and has fond memories of being in Tenerife, although he hasn’t been since learning Spanish it would be great to see him in action ordering in a bar or talking to a local about the Isle of Man. Meily also loves Barcelona - he loved the beach, the city and the historic sites. His keen interest in the country is evident when talking to him about why he is learning Spanish.
In the future Meily wants to be an Environmental Lawyer and thinks Spanish will greatly help him. He wants to join the EU and help as much of the world as he can before it’s too late. Meily is deeply passionate about making a difference and he is very focused on what he wants to achieve. His aims at the moment are to become fluent in Spanish and would consider becoming fluent a huge achievement as none of his studying would have been done at school and solely done in his own spare time. Meily is certainly on the way and has the right attitude to go with it. We want to congratulate Meily on being so proactive and focused on his goal - he is a model student. We wish him every success in the future and are glad we are a part of his journey. Well done Meily.
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