Erfahrungsbericht von Julio E.

I'm sure that my profile is different from the usual or more common ones of your students. That's why I've decided to take your suggestion to tell you something about my experiences with Gymglish. First and foremost, my intention in signing up for the course was not to learn English, or rather, to improve the limited level I had when I signed up. And this is for the simple reason that I believe - rather, I am sure - that my current intellectual faculties will not allow me to do so. I say this because I am almost 78 years old, and although in my previous studies I was always an outstanding student and developed a successful professional life (I have long since retired), in recent years I have noticed a gradual weakening of my cognitive capacity (especially my memory). And this has been worrying me lately, and it is what led me to the conclusion I have drawn in the previous paragraph: I am no longer in a position to learn. But I do believe that I must exercise my already degraded intellect. That is to say, just as the arrival of senescence forces those of us who are in that phase of life not to abandon our physique, for which it is necessary to force ourselves to perform certain physical exercises, I believe that the mind also needs to be exercised, to combat or, at least, to slow down in part its natural and ever more pronounced process of deterioration. That's what it takes to get old. So, taking into account that I have always considered English as a virtuous language, that I started studying it with great interest when I was less than 20 years old (in person, in an academy after work), that, years later, I continued with a private teacher who gave me classes in my own professional office, and that I completed with a three-week stay living with an English family in a small town in the southwest of England, when I received your advertisement I thought that enrolling in the course could contribute to the mental exercise that, as I said, I felt I needed. So I hope it will be understood that at this stage of life I do not intend to learn the language, although I am not going to give up learning what I can on the course. I really see the course as an intellectual exercise that can be good for me. I hope it will. I also hope that what I have told you -my history with English- will be of interest to you. Best regards.

— Julio E. (Liendo, Cantabria, SPAIN)