Our new student was a handsome young gentleman from Columbia. Pablo was only nineteen years old but he seemed older. He was smart, friendly, kind and everyone loved him.
One morning early in October Pablo was very late for class, which was unusual. When he got to his seat, he sat down, immediately stood up again, sat down, then stood up again – which was even more unusual.
“Pablo, do you have something to tell the class?”
He did.
Using broken English and an array of animated gestures, Pablo told the story of coming to school that morning.
We learned he lived in the industrial outskirts of town. He waited for his bus that morning at the usual time. The only other person at his stop was an elderly woman. Without warning, she made a deep coughing sound, grabbed at her chest and fell to the ground. She was having a heart attack. Pablo didn’t know what to do.
The teenager had been in Canada for three weeks and someone was going to die because he didn’t speak English.
He ran to a nearby industrial building and banged on the plate-glass lobby window. The security guard saw him and unlocked the door. Breathless and scared Pablo pointed backwards over his shoulder and shouted, Woman! Heart! Bus!
The security guard unclipped his cell-phone from his belt and dialed 911.
I asked my star pupil, “How long did the ambulance take to get there?”
“Five-and- half minutes,” he answered.
“How is the old woman?”
He cupped his hand over his nose and mouth like an oxygen mask and breathed deeply. “She good”, he smiled.
The other students clapped but I wasn’t quite finished. “Pablo, how much grammar did you use?”
He thought for a minute and answered, “Zero.”
We were learning about important words and how they carry the day. With or without grammar woman heart bus - in any order - provided enough information for the security guard to get help. Speaking English isn’t anything like writing it. Situations, context and gestures supply critical information and grammar isn’t necessary at all for successful speaking.
Pablo quit school.
We didn't see him for several months then he dropped by class for a visit. It was nice to see him. (His speaking skills were amazing.)
“Where did you go?” I asked him.
“I thought I need grammar for people to understand me”, he said, “But I don’t.”
“No you don’t,” I agreed – “but where did you go?”
“I got a job”
Newcomers are so self-conscious about their accents and making grammar mistakes, they won’t speak English at all. It’s a crime, because neither is important.
The other students were dazzled by Pablo and they intellectually accepted what I told them about grammar (Pablo was living proof), but they couldn't imagine themselves following his lead. For one thing, few people are as confident or out-going as Pablo. And let's face it, it is much safer to sit in English class and learn grammar than it is to go out in the world and speak English. You don't need grammar to speak English, you need guts.
