With some relief, I have finally come to end of another term of teaching English as a foreign language at Bologna University.

How to end courses on a positive note is always an issue for me. I dislike scheduling an end of course test for the final lesson, preferring to get this out of the way beforehand.

In this way, I can set aside the last class to include a kind of ‘where can you go from here’ pep talk.

My model for this kind of address is David Foster Wallace’s amazing ‘this is water’ talk at South Kenyon college. Brilliant as this speech was, there’s also something reassuring about the fact that the students who heard his talk were not immediately in awe of Wallace’s brilliance.

I am happy if my more humble speech avoids sounding too pompous or obvious.

On the whole, I probably need to include more humour. For better or worse, here’s what I said [my bracketed comments were added afterwards]:

“Nowadays, it’s common to hear people talking about life-long learning.

[I ask who has heard of lifelong learning – nobody has!]

One time, there was the mistaken idea that when you finished school or university, your official period of learning was finished – your next goal was directed solely to working and earning a living.

Learning is not a finite thing.   In one sense it never ends.

[The students look as though they are thinking: ‘Where is all this leading? / Does he think we’re dumb?]

People who remain curious about the world are, in my view, those who are most alive.

Learning a language is a very particular case.

[The students look as though they are thinking: ‘He DOES think we’re dumb’]

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