Janus

In Roman mythology Janus was the god of doorways. Always depicted with two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward, he traditionally represented change, from the past to the future. His most enduring legacy (legado duradero) to modern culture is to be found in the month of January, a word etymologically derived from his name.

Just as (igual que) the image of Janus would stand over the doorways of well-to-do (acomodados) Roman households, so January stands at the gateway to the new year providing us with an opportunity to look back as well as forward.

Perhaps we should all keep the figure of the twin faced Janus in mind at this time of year in order not only to make our usual list of futile New Year’s resolutions but also to reflect upon the previous year, analyse our performance and learn from our mistakes.

Mistakes have always had a very bad press (mala prensa). This is perhaps why, associating them with something very negative, we tend to do our very best to forget about them as soon as possible. As far as I’m concerned, this in itself is a big mistake. As a general rule we learn very little from our successes. The very nature of success means that the euphoria it brings normally blinds us (nos ciega), thereby (así) preventing us from analysing exactly what went right and why. Mistakes on the other hand are a different matter as they leave us in a perfect state of mind to question and examine the behaviour or sequence of events that led up to them in order to ensure we don’t follow the same behavioural pattern in the future.

Looking forward again, January is a classic moment to make mistakes. We all make them when making our New Year’s resolutions, setting ourselves unrealistic objectives whilst not developing any clear action plan as to how to go about achieving them. A classic example is the resolution thousands of Spaniards make at this time of the year: “This year is going to be the year of English, the year I’m really going to set my mind to (tomármelo en serio) mastering the language of Shakespeare.”

This resolution in itself can be highly damaging (dañino) to your progress in learning English, particularly when, as time goes by, you find yourself unable to make it happen (hacerlo realidad). Not living up to (logrando) your goals and turning them (convirtiéndolos) into a series of failures is one of the biggest causes of personal frustration and demotivation. Learning English is an obvious case. As soon as you drop your guard and stop devoting enough time to it, you will cease to notice any improvement. When you no longer notice any improvement, you will make even less effort and will start to get into a pathetic vicious circle which usually ends with the conclusion that you just aren’t cut out for learning languages (que los idiomas no son lo tuyo).
Everybody is cut out for learning languages. But successfully learning a foreign language when you’re not surrounded by it 24 hours a day requires an enormous amount of self-discipline and effort. If you’re not prepared to devote a minimum of 20 minutes to English every day, you will never make any progress and, psychologically, you will always associate English with failure.

If this was your case last year, make sure that this year you associate learning English with success by exposing yourself to the language every single day of 2012, whether by watching the news on TV, listening to the radio (Vaughan Radio is a good place to start), reading the newspaper, surfing the Internet, watching Vaughan TV videos online, studying the pages of the Vaughan Review (but not just once), trying to read a novel in English, using English at every available opportunity.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to a question of mathematics. The more English you expose yourself to, the more English you will learn. It’s not exactly rocket science but it’s surprising just how many people fail to understand this most basic of formulae. It just leaves me to wish you a very happy new year: make 2012 the year you crack the English nut (solucionar el problema del inglés).

Written By Richard Brown
Edited by Vaughan Radio y Televisión
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