I want to share with my students and colleagues one of the most inspiring speeches I've ever heard. Since I've heard it for the first time, I couldn't ever forget it and so I go back to it from time to time. This Is Water is a commencement speech of 2005 written and presented by the late American author David Foster Wallace (1962 - 2008).
*A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions and in similar institutions around the world.
There's a wonderful reminder in Wallace's speech that we go to educational institutions not for degrees or to build some vast knowledge as much as we go there to learn how to think, how to perceive things happening around us in life every day differently, better. To learn to CHOOSE what to think about.
I always encourage my students to study English with a material that arises their curiosity, inspires.
Is it art?
Is it literature?
Is it psychology?
Is it philosophy?
Is it business?
Whichever subject it is...
Go that direction and you won't even notice how much more of a foreign language you have acquired!
If you hear this speech, the practice of English structure and vocabulary is guaranteed.
And a lot of m e a n i n g. I hope it will make you think, remind you of what's i m p o r t a n t.
Highly recommended for intermediate and higher-level students.