New beginnings...
Starting off to learn something completely new, it helps to be accompanied by some good verbs:
to do
to continue
to practice
to repeat
to repeat
to repeat…
To give up is not in this list! To give up belongs to other listings.
I do remember my first time traveling alone across the ocean. It was in New York City that I took my first class with someone called David Dorfman. He was teaching dance and playing the accordion. Sometimes simultaneously. Always comforting
Then me saying (after the class): ‘Sorry for being such a disaster when moving’ He friendly replied: ‘Sofie, you are not a bad dancer, you are a new dancer’.
Comforting is a word close to confronting.
Thank you David Dorfman for saving me there.
In fact, he was not the first ‘David’ to help me in developing skills that are usefull for the rest of my life. David Hernandez was the very first one to ‘yell’ at me: ‘Sofie, stop saying that you can not do this. Just do what you can do!’ Very right to the point.
Thank you David Hernandez for saving me many times.
Both experiences make me often repeat this to new learners: ‘Never say: I can not. Rather say: I can not YET’ It is another perspective.
Last week was a week of admission tests in a place where I teach. Standing eye in eye with learners doing their very first audition in their lives reminded me of the cycle one goes through. I wish for hem to continue their way with the right verbs in their pocket. Step by step. Ignoring the general accepted lie hat one is gifted only when he or she passes immediately the first test.
Sometimes one phrase makes a difference of one or more lives.
So, David Dorfman and David Hernandez, hereby I formally invite you at my table.
