This proverb reminds me of a popular British TV show, entitled “Opportunity Knocks”, in which talented individuals (and sometimes animals) would showcase their talent, and at the end of the series win a prize and quite a bit of fame. Some of the participants went on to become quite famous and successful later on in life.

The moral behind this proverb is that we should seize an opportunity when it occurs because it may never happen again. We can apply it to language learning however. When we are trying to improve our linguistic skills, we should never pass up an opportunity to practise.

Practising opportunities could come in very small things: listening to a song on the radio in English, for example, reading the ingredients on a can of tomato sauce in French, coming across an interesting headline on the internet. However there may be greater opportunities: a foreign couple have moved into the apartment across the hall and need help with finding their way around your town, a new colleague has joined your team and he’s a native-Spanish speaker, you decide to go on holiday to an Italian-speaking country.

If you’re not so lucky to get landed with such opportunities, you can simply create your own. Elite Learning offers a suite of services, from online language learning, to telephone practise, to face-to-face and in-company courses. You can simply contact us and we will help create practising opportunities for you.

You do not need to wait for opportunity to knock – you now have the luxury of creating the opportunities for improving your linguistic skills yourself. In these modern times, we cannot afford to waste time waiting for opportunities to present themselves: we have to go out and be pro-active.