To know - write.

I was sipping on a cup of licorice Yogi tea the other day when I looked at the saying on the tea bag which read, "To learn, read. To know, write. To master, teach." I had to pause for several minutes after I read it to absorb why I was so struck by its meaning. It didn't take long to do a quick life comparison and realize that I've been doing a lot of learning and mastering over the past 6 months, but little knowing. I may have the freedom to read the news every morning in both French and English, or the down time at night to pour into an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel; I may also have the incredible opportunity of teaching my own language in a foreign country in which I'm also daily trying to master its language. However, I have the impression that I may look back on this ex-patriot experience and not really know as much as I might have hoped. I haven't gone this long without a writing assignment since I was a child, and with all the incredible things I experience every day, it seems almost a sin not to share these experiences with others, practice a skill that I consider one of the most important in life, and record events to reference later in life.

While I feel like a fat lady at the gym trying to get back into shape (both physically and in my writing) I want to encourage everyone to really learn how to write. Go get yourselves a copy of Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" and apply it to a routine of self-given writing assignments. As I've tutored several more advanced international students in English, I've realized how important it is to know form, style and structure, and for years I've taken these things for granted. While French may be my current language focus, I am determined to get back to and enhance the gift that I've been given...English as my mother tongue.