Dear graduates: you and your family, teachers and friends are here to celebrate your successful acquisition of an important ability – the ability to use English as a means of communication. It took time, work and effort on your part and, many times, on that of your parents and teachers as well, but you have accomplished it and are to be congratulated. Communication is a gift – one given to us soon after birth and developed with age – that connects us to our world and to others. It has made it possible for us as human beings to accumulate knowledge of ourselves and our universe that helps us not only survive but flourish. Through communication, we share and build and share again so that we are able to move forward, not having to re-discover for ourselves what others have already done so. Learning our first language, in our case Portuguese, was essential. Choosing to learn our second – or, who knows, third or more –, now English, was very smart. With each new language, we acquire a new world. Knowing the code allows us access to new ways of looking at the world, introduces us to new people, new experiences, and gives us new chances to learn, grow, create and share. More practically, it is a tool we can use for survival, and not just when we travel to almost anywhere in the world. Take my example. I had the luck to learn English as a child when my family moved to the US because of my father’s work. A year-long opportunity became a 14-year experience and in many ways, I became more American than Brazilian. Certainly so in my schooling, and
consequently, when at 22, I saw myself back in Brazil, my diploma from a reputable American university in Economics was meaningless because I had not studied the Brazilian economy. To work in my field, I would have to go back to school. But how to support myself meanwhile? What could I do? What skill did I have that was worth something in the market? English. I could speak English and I could teach it to others. I became an English teacher, thus discovering my true calling. English was the tool that allowed me to do more than survive, that allowed me to find my place in the world. Life is unexpected, the future uncertain. As Robert Burns put it, “… the best laid schemes of mice and men do oft go awry.” In other words, things don’t always work out as we plan and expect them to. The more tools we have to prepare for eventualities, the better our chances of success. And the ability to communicate in various different languages, allowing us to navigate in various different worlds, is an especially different tool that leads us to acquiring more and more additional tools. This is what we celebrate today, that you now have this very special tool. May it serve you well; may you use it wisely. Thank you.
Patricia Stahl Fleury CTJ Teacher