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Your Best Teacher is Your Last Mistake | ||
Tags: Error | Meaning of words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 26 19 May 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Today, I met a teacher whose new advertising slogan is "Your Best Teacher is Your Last
Mistake". She is not a native English speaker, and I told her that this slogan doesn't meant what she thinks it means. However, she pointed out that the originator of the slogan is, in fact, an American (Ralph Nader) and that I am probably wrong in my interpretation. So, my question is: How do you interpret this slogan? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5231 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 2 of 26 19 May 2011 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It took reading through about 20 times but I finally got it.
"The last mistake we made has the greatest ability to teach us something" Or something along those lines What a confusing/profound statement 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sanghee Groupie United States Joined 5068 days ago 60 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean | Message 3 of 26 19 May 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I interpreted it like "you learn from your mistakes". I can kind of see another interpretation of it but when I read the title that's what I instantly thought.
edit: I prefer tractor's interpretation; it made me laugh. Edited by Sanghee on 19 May 2011 at 6:02pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 26 19 May 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
She's a good teacher but she'll kill you. 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6919 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 26 19 May 2011 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, teacher is this context does not refer to a physical person. The "teacher" in this case is the "mistake". In other words, we learn from our mistakes and the most recent mistake we make is our best lesson or best teacher.
That having been said, although grammatically correct, I do not think this is such a great slogan for an educator since it implies that your best teacher is not her, but your last mistake... Edited by translator2 on 19 May 2011 at 6:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 26 19 May 2011 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
That was pretty close to my interpretation. Unfortunately, I didn't really see any other interpretations until reading other comments above. Now I feel a bit guilty. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Matheus Senior Member Brazil Joined 5081 days ago 208 posts - 312 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 8 of 26 19 May 2011 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
Same here. I find it ok, but I disagree with this phrase because I think that the best teacher is the "necessity". If you really need to do something, than you'll have to learn it in order to survive(?). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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