At the age of 5, my mother took me to “Dom Pionira” (the "Home of Pioneers") to learn English, and although I had to sacrifice playing in the yard, it was not difficult at all, on the contrary, I loved it. “My name is Mary. I am Mery Bell. I am a pupil” were the first English sentences I learned from an English textbook for children, which I inherited from my sister, who, of course, had learnt English before me at the same place.
I made her study with me as I showed off and babbled, but it was the notorious truth that I learned a lot more words from the music and language that came from the radio with rock and roll music. In fact, the language itself was music to my ears. I was flying around like a butterfly from excitement. All the music shows and music magazines that started to come out a little later did a lot to make our knowledge of English skyrocket. Back then, few people knew the English language, and I can safely say that all the hype that arose around rock and roll was in fact educational reading for us. 😊 It went without saying that we would continue to study English in grammar school. She, as the older one, and I as the younger one, attended the same grammar school following the family tradition, the Third Belgrade gymnasium (now called “St. Sava gymnasium”). It went without saying that I would learn from the books I inherited from my sister, because for generations the curriculum had not changed, and therefore neither had the textbooks. They were textbooks from the Croatian publisher An English Reader, by Brihta Grgić, and they were considered the best English language textbooks in Yugoslavia. From them we learned not only grammar, tenses, causative have: Have you had your hair cut or difference between few and a few, but also English literature and culture. We learnt by heart Antony's speech, from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar": Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him... or about the sights of British cities, the most famous colleges, sports, about everyday life in the UK. We knew everything about that country even though few of us had been there. Now, you're wondering what's the big deal, many have gone through the same and why is it that my studying was different?
The Beatles marked my life so much that Tom Hanks' statement that the Beatles' story is the story of all of us ("The Beatles' story is all of our stories") turned out to be completely correct. We knew everything about them, dressed like them, watched their movies, sang "Don’t let me down", "Help"... we dreamed of going to England, the country of our idols. In this sense, I literally learned from Beatles books, because from the pages of the English language textbook, inherited from my sister, I was looking at hand-drawn Fab Four portraits and their signatures, which, as big Beatles fans, my sister and her friend persistently practiced copying. With round Lennon glasses and a Ringo haircut, the way Slavica was cut and why everyone called her Ringo, my sister and her friend were the spitting image of fans of the famous Liverpool foursome, and therefore their textbooks were decorated in The Beatles fashion. And then who can say that I didn't learn from Beatles books. 😊
As I, along with my sister, a Beatles girl, also became a Beatles girl, together we fantasized about going to the UK, to personally see everything that excited us so much, but we didn't know how. I was still young so that was out of the question, and my sister wanted just like her "Ringo" friend to go to England for the summer vacation to pick strawberries and learn the language. We asked Ringo Slavica about everything even though we didn't need her, we learned from the textbook how to fill out the visa application, just in case, and the British Embassy was next to the grammar school anyway*. We found out which strawberry field to go to, where to sleep. We knew everything, we just didn't know what to do with mom, she was a big obstacle to our plan. We never went to England together to pick strawberries and learn the language, but we made up for everything later, each in our own way.
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club was my place and the Sex Pistols concert at the 100 Club on Oxford St in London remained one of the most memorable experiences ever. Listening to new music in my childhood that captured me forever, all I wanted was to learn the language of that new music, absorb the culture that came with it and live like my generation lives everywhere in the western world.
Today, children no longer go to England to pick strawberries and learn the language. Their parents pay for summer language schools at prestigious colleges and universities, and that must be great. However, for me, an old school girl, the best way to learn English is still to travel, live & work there, spend the whole summer and learn both the language and life at the same time. And on that occasion, strawberries are picked, that symbol of Wimbledon, that most wonderful red fruit that is the sweetest in June, that only real "God's nibble". It was all about strawberries and blood. My 😉 and Britain, that most wonderful of all the wonderful creations I grew up with.
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