We no longer study English

This is the news: After a 26-month run, this, the 46^th article on We study English, is the last one.

The following is an explanation, of why there are no other articles expected to follow this one soon, and of why there is a blog with 46 articles in the first place. In order to explain all that, for the first time the topic of the article is to be me, the author.

I like to learn languages. So, I like to take language courses. And when the language course is the last one, I like to make an extra effort. Not only to prevent failing the exams, but also to prevent passing the exams without learning everything I could – because after passing the last exam there are no more courses to take. Hence the idea to publish articles about learning the language, as both a help to others and an exercise. And yes, in case you are noticing something weird about the language, when I am not in an exam that requires me to show richness of expression I like to write in historical present. And then, even though I happen to have my own website, these articles are better published in a newly-created, specific, independent blog. I do it before in the last year of Portuguese with the blog Estudamos português, and I do it again in the last year of English with We study English. Well, this last one goes on for two years in fact, because when I am already at the last year they happen to add another year.

Having these articles published in a specific, independent blog makes it easy for others to participate, and so I make both blogs open to students at my language school. But then, I come across a realization: the sets of language students and bloggers have a thin intersection. Few students actually collaborate – just one for Estudamos português, writing four articles, and none for We study English. I am mostly on my own.

For Estudamos português, I write 93 articles (24 pages and 69 posts) - for We study English, I write 46 articles (7 pages and 39 posts), which is about half. Both have the introductory pages What is this?, Participate and Administration; both have pages dedicated to the Official Language Schools (The EEOOII, The galician EEOOII, The galician EEOOII with English and The EOI of Vigo); both have poetry pages (11 at Estudamos português, 5 at We study English).

Certainly, I produce less articles for We study English than for Estudamos português. There is no way I can write articles in English about the CPLP, its Sport Games, and its Language Institute because the English-speaking community of countries lacks an equivalent organization. Same for the Lusophone Games and the Portuguese Orthographic Agreements. And to write a profile for each country becomes an out-of-question matter – instead of 8 countries that officially speak the language, English has 43. But I regret writing not an article about the English-speaking community of countries, and a series of articles about the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and its application to Spain and Galicia. See how weird historical present gets?  Actions, or lack thereof, appear to be simultaneous to regret, making the subject look hypocritical.  Still, it provides unmatched clarity.  But enough of digression... the point being: English, I owe you in that one.

And this is all.