Teach English in WengjiAng Zhen - Yueyang Shi

From a very young age, friendship is one of the first feelings we come into contact with in life. During our early years, we consider our friends simple playmates, and it is really easy to befriend people. During adolescence, friends are often more important than our parents. When we need someone to talk to, do homework or simply have fun with our first thought always goes to our friends. Growing up, friendship becomes also important in our workplace, where we can have someone to share a coffee break or have a chat with. So, since friendship is one of the most important things in our lives, why not also use it when it comes to learning something new like English? From my experience of being not only a student but also a teacher, I have seen many friendships begin at school. School is the place where we spend most of our time when we are young. It is where we learn new things, where we have new experiences, and where we grow while doing so. I think students should make friends in the classroom for many reasons, but the most important one is that we become better with the right people around us and we can do everything in a better way, like learning English. When you have friends in class everything becomes easier. For example, if one day, for some reason you miss a class, you could ask one of your friends to take some notes for you, or you could ask them to give you theirs to copy at home not to miss anything important that might have been said or done during the lesson. At the same time, having a friend in the classroom gives you the opportunity to practice outside of school. You could practice your conversational skills together; choosing different topics every time if you feel like talking, you could share resources that you have like books, magazines or newspapers if you feel like reading, or you could simply watch or share films, videos, interviews or podcasts that you can listen to anywhere to improve and practice your listening skills. Another perk of having friends with you is that many situations can be more fun and more enjoyable than if you were alone. It is always nice to know that the people who are doing this with you are sharing the same experience as you and might have the same problems and doubts that you might be having at that moment. Furthermore, to make the learning aspect less heavy, you could have study groups with your friends in which you could do your homework, share notes, revise or study for tests. This could help you improve your grades too, and if at some point in your course you are feeling like you are losing momentum, having people next to you, helping you and lifting your mood might be the best thing to help you get back on track. On another note though, it might happen that after some time, when students are feeling more comfortable and confident in class and start to learn what other people's limits are, a little competition might appear among them. However, a little bit of competition in class has never hurt anybody. Sometimes it is useful because it allows students to take advantage of their abilities and to make the most of their potential. On the other hand, though, it may harm the learning process by turning everything into a race, where understanding and being able to put what has been taught into practice becomes less important compared to “winning the race. Also, students might start having or showing “fear of failure”, and that could damage their self-esteem and confidence in the classroom. In my opinion, friendships help people develop essential life skills and I think that having people supporting you through something like learning a new language or having someone who is going through the same thing as you is vital. In short, people benefit greatly from having friends, and besides, who finds a friend finds a treasure.