Practice makes perfect

A better saying is “Perfect practice makes perfect”. If one doesn’t practice the right way one doesn’t get better. When people say “practice makes perfect” they mean that through practice a person can reach their full potential. I absolutely agree with the proverb. To become a good specialist in any field you need to practice a lot. You can’t imagine a good surgeon or a good teacher with no practice. Of course, different people have different abilities and potential. But at the same time it often happens that successful primary pupils with good natural abilities have no achievements in secondary school and vice versa. To my mind a hard-working child has more chances to get good knowledge and develop practical skills than a lazy child with lots of talents. The secret of his success is simple. He should follow a wise proverb that practice makes perfect.

A good example to prove the idea that practice makes perfect is learning a foreign language. I started learning English at the age of 7. So I’ve been learning it for…years already. At our English lessons we have a lot of grammar and vocabulary drills. I think grammar is important in any language because you can’t build a house without foundations, but you need to practice grammar together with vocabulary. Every day I try to memories some English words and practice them. I have no problem learning words connected with my hobby and related to my interests.

I personally think that English is not an easy language to learn. One of the problems for those who learn English is phrasal verbs and, of course, idioms. And you have to keep yourself up-to date with them and not to use the old-fashioned ones. Besides English intonation is the most difficult part of pronunciation, because if you get it wrong people may think you are rude. But the most difficult part in any language is, perhaps, learning the elements for which there are no written rules, that is ‘social English”. This means learning about some expected ways of behavior, knowing what sort of English to use in different situations (formal or informal). So you have to learn to think in English. It’s rather difficult. But I like it. In my opinion learning English needs a lot of enthusiasm. It happens that I forget words, phrases or rules when I don’t use them for some time. The only way out is to revise the things I have already studied. It proves that practice makes perfect.

In my view if I practice English every day, I will be able to master it. I read books, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, it allows me to enlarge my vocabulary, learn up-to-date idioms and phrasal verbs, learn to guess the meaning of the words from the context and brush up my knowledge. Watching videos and TV programmers helps me learn informal English and practice listening.

Can you think of an example when practice and hard work helped a person to achieve his ambition?

Take a famous British admiral Horatio Nelson for example. Because of his physical weakness he seemed very unlikely to become a seaman. But he impressed his fellow students by his great will. He did much physical exercise to achieve his aim. At the age of 14 he was allowed to join an expedition to the North Pole and later became famous.

Can you do without revision?

I think it’s impossible. Because it’s quite human to forget things. And the best way to remember them is to revise.

What kind of people achieve better results in learning; those who have natural abilities or those who work hard?

To my mind a hard-working child has more chances to get good knowledge and develop practical skills than a lazy child with lots of talents.

What part of language requires a great deal of practice?

To my mind learning English vocabulary requires a great deal of practice. If you don’t use the words you forget them very quickly.