It was a friend of mine
who just said to me one day,
"Oh, I've signed up for
ballroom dancing lessons,
do you want to come?"
I said: "definitely",
the two of us, off we went,
no partners, and I just,
oh yeah, on our own,
beginners' classes, and I've –
I've completely fell in love with it.
And that same friend
actually is the person
that finally inspired me
to do my degree course.
I am studying worlds of English.
The academic texts that I use
all form a complete part
of the course: they're,
they're written as
textbooks that are specifically
for that course.
I think to get the most
out of reading the academic texts
you've got to give it
proper time and
proper consideration.
I always plan
to do around about two hours a day
reading and note taking.
First of all, I'm looking to
get the gist of the subject
and understand it a little bit deeper
and then I'll read it
more thoroughly with
an eye to answering a question –
a particular assignment question.
When I'm choosing the bits that
I really need to focus on,
my main tool is
to keep referring back
to the question that
I am answering.
If you're trying to sort
out which bits of the text
are going to be most relevant,
just make best use of
all the contents pages,
the chapter headings, the indexes;
always reading through
the summaries,
the conclusions
and the introductions of each section
actually gives you a good overview
and you can pick out the bits
that are going to fit in well.
And also, using the contents
is quite detailed:
the chapter headings, they give
you a good indication of what's going
to be there as well.
A typical day for me
is my morning ritual:
I get up and sit down
and read the paper
cover to cover,
and do the puzzles.
After that I
do like to go for a walk.
That is one of my rituals
and I usually take about an hour.
I've got three or four
good sort of four-mile routes
around the local town
which takes me through the parks.
Then I come back,
do all my household chores,
bit of cooking, bit of gardening;
my partner's out
most of the morning playing golf –
he comes home at lunchtime.
As part of my in-depth reading,
I note the key terms
and then make sure I bring them
into the assignment.
Sometimes the specialist vocabulary
can be a bit trying.
Actually, the glossaries
in the back of the books
come in very handy for that.
What I most like about
the academic texts is that
they can introduce
new ideas to you:
open your eyes to all
sorts of subjects
but there's always a bit of
proof behind it.
My top tips for learning
would be: try not
to miss anything out
and don't just read the
bits that you think
will answer the question.
The thing that
I enjoy most about
the academic studying
is that it broadens the mind.
Next big dancing event
will be an exam which
is an Argentine tango:
that will be the ninth exam
we've taken in that
particular form of dancing.
My dance partner and I
like to take
the dancing exams,
it's by no means compulsory.
For me they are just
more of a marker,
put all that work in and
you have achieved a level:
they're quite significant for me.
Go the distance.