In a hurry!

One of the challenges we have as English language teachers is that students are often in a hurry. Just yesterday I had another request to help someone get from an IELTS 6 to IELTS 7 in a month. He wants to emigrate to Canada and needs this score for his permanent visa. Students often don't realise it may take a full semester to improve their IELTS score half a point, so to go from 6 to 7 could take a full year. When I was learning English myself, I spent many years learning new vocab and expressions, and my first language is quite close to English. I am originally Dutch. I often tell my students that I had a vocab notebook in my pocket for 2 full years and wrote down new language every day! And this was after I had already achieved an upper-intermediate level in most skills.

The following video clip illustrates the frustration some students feel sometimes. And it's just funny! BTW I work in the Middle East.

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So I advise my students to be patient because you don't want to end up making the following mistake: