Sometimes, when I read an essay written by one of my students, I feel like standing up and clapping. See for yourself – below is David’s text. I asked for examples of the use of impersonal forms, and this is what I got:
“A Fairy Tale”
K. had a difficult childhood. His parents didn’t get along well and there were often arguments at home.
K. was often sad and wanted to cry. When he was twelve years old, he decided to leave his parents’ home and move in with his grandmother. “Life is probably better there,” K. said to himself. “It’s worth leaving.”
On the way to his grandmother’s house, K. met a little fairytale dwarf on the street, dressed in blue and wearing a large red hat. The dwarf had a sad face.
“Has anything happened to you?” asked K.
“I’ve been out all day and haven’t eaten anything yet. I’m thirsty, I feel like eating.”
K took his sandwich and a bottle of water out of his bag and gave them to the dwarf. The man immediately devoured the sandwich and took a sip of water.
“I am very grateful to you, what can I do for you?” asked the dwarf.
K thought for a moment and answered: “You are a dwarf, you can perform miracles. Do you want to show me a magic trick?”
“Gladly,” the dwarf smiled and pointed his finger to the sky.
“It’s getting dark now,” he said, and to K’s surprise, the sky suddenly darkened, became cloudy, and darkened. It was getting cool.
“It clears up,” said the dwarf again, and suddenly it cleared up, became cloudy, and the sun came out again.
“That’s a great trick,” declared K. “Can you teach me that?”
“Never,” the dwarf explained and immediately disappeared without a trace.
K never met the dwarf again, but he remembered what the little wizard had told him: “It’s better to be wise than rich!”
A student who inspires
The author of this text is David Wells, an Englishman living in Dresden, whom I have had the privilege of teaching for over a year. David is a polyglot and is involved in translating films from Polish into English, among other things.
Texts like these remind me why I love teaching so much – because language is not only grammar, but also heart, imagination, and humanity.
