Treating English as a Project
Imagine this situation:
John walks into the airport, drop $300.00 on the ticket counter
John says: "Give me a ticket."
The ticket agent says, "Where to?"
John say: "I’m late, just give me the ticket."
The ticket agent is very confused and thinks that John is crazy. Then she calls two policemen who take John away.
Here’s the question:
It is John crazy? Yes/No
I think John is crazy. He doesn’t have a goal; he doesn’t know where he is going.
About Studying Languages, Such as English
Now, some people love studying English and they don’t care about reaching a goal; they just like studying English.
However, most people don’t study well in this way, they need to treat English as though it’s a project.
What is a Project?
At work, you constantly have things to do. Sometimes they’re small things; like calling a customer or tidying your desk. Sometimes there are very big things to do. These are called projects.
The good way to define a project is to say that a project is a big plan to do something.
Examples of projects:
Saving for a new car
Planning a three-month around the world holiday
Planning to have a baby
Things that are not projects:
Planning Dinner
Meeting friends
It is surprising find out that:
All good projects have the same 5 main qualities:
They need goals, a final objective, resources, a deadline and belief
Goals
1 Goal The goal of the project can be described very clearly
2 Sub-goal(s) Sub-goal(s) can be described
Final objective
3 Final objective You can test when your project is complete
Resources
4 Time You need to spend some time doing the project
5 Money You may need to spend money on the project
Deadline
6 Deadline The time when the project must be completed
Belief
7 Imagine You can imagine the finished product, you can see it in your mind
8 Believe You can believe that you can do it
9 Want You want to do it
Notes:
1 You don’t have to like doing the project. This does not include "I like…". That is not so important. At work, you don’t enjoy everything you do.
2 Projects that are difficult to finish have few or none of these qualities
3 Bad projects often are never completed
Let’s look at some examples of projects:
Making a website about your family
For example, if the goal of the project is to make a website about your family, to make this into :
1 Goal Make a family website
2 Sub-goal(s) Study HTML
3 Final Objective You have a good-looking website on the Internet
4 Time You spend 1 hour a day studying HTML
5 Money Buy new computer
6 Deadline(s) Set deadlines: When you will study, and when the web site will be completed
7 Imagine The finished product
8 Believe You can do it
9 Want To do it
Deciding to have a baby
1 goal: have a baby
2 sub-goal(s) go to the doctor for a checkup, get pregnant, save money for baby items
3 Final Objective your baby is born and you have 1,000,000 yen saved in the bank
4 Time You decide to spend more time with your husband
5 Money Maybe you spend money on a romantic weekend!
6 Deadline(s) date to meet your doctor, when you will have your baby
7 Imagine The finished product (a baby!)
8 Believe You can do it
9 Want To do it
About English
Eric’s Quote: Language is like a ocean; it seems to go on forever.
There are Two Big Problems when Studying English
1 English is Big
Looking only at words, the Oxford English dictionary estimates that there are about 250,000 English words in the English language.
It is also probable that English has the greatest number of words of any language in the world.
2 Time
Most people don’t have time to study and learn a quarter of a million words.
If you learn ten new words a day it will take you about 68 years to learn the words. This is clearly not practical.
Most people give up studying English because they think it’s too difficult. But really, English is not too difficult; it feels just too big.
If we can define Studying English as a project then we should be able to finish it.
Just to be good at English is not a clearly defined project.
Here’s a very clear English project:
Achieve Toeic Score 500
1 Goal Toeic score 500
2 Sub-goal(s) Study Toeic book, one page a day.
Study Toeic Software on your computer.
Take English lessons every week
3 Final objective Toeic score 500 (or greater!)
4 Time Study 1 hour a day, every day
5 Money Buy a suitable Toeic study book.
Buy Toeic Software for your computer.
Pay for English lessons every week
6 Deadline The day you decide to take the test, decide this date the day you decide to start studying
7 Imagine You can imagine receiving your certificate through the post
8 Believe You believe you can do it
9 Want You want to do it
I’m sure you can think of many other English projects. For example, you could buy a study book, divide the book and study two pages every day. With a 100 page book it’s easy to see the deadline: 100/2= 50 days. You should finish this project in about 7 weeks.
Finally
When you achieve your final goal. Celebrate!!!
Have a party, buy a new car, computer, suit or whatever you like. In addition, be very proud – because you worked very hard to complete your project.
Some words used in this article that you may want to learn:
| Objective | 目標 もくひょう |
| reosources | 資源 ざいげん |
| treat | 考える かんがえる |
| probable;likely | ありそう ありそう |
| belief | 信じること しんじること |