David Greene and others,

The fact that this program in the church basement was free does not tell me
that it was effective. Nor was it free if it required funding from the
government. Someone else was paying for it. The people paying for the
service had the right to decide on whether they wanted to continue paying or
not.

All of my experience suggests that with adults, it is far better to ask
people to pay. Either pay them to study or ask them to pay. This is actually
in their own interest. Fees can be adjusted to the ability to pay. However,
if it is free, the degree of commitment declines rapidly. And learning to
speak another language takes a lot of commitment.

If these people were genuinely committed to learning English they would have
done so, with or without this program. Once the issue is presented as an
"our rights" entitlement issue, I am sure that there are lots of people who
will jump on the bandwagon and demand their entitlement.

This does not mean that those people will put the effort into learning
English.  Language learning is a more individual thing. It is not about
political activism in my experience. It requires effort, commitment,
emotional as well as in terms of time, and the willingness to shut oneself
off from one's own culture to some extent and for a period of time. Having
learned 10 languages and watched others learn, I am quite confident, that
without there is little meaningful progress in language learning.

Steve



-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
1-604-922-8514
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