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English Language Hub | Determined, Driven or Stubborn?

by | Nov 18, 2020 | Creating your unique English Language hub | 0 comments

English Language hub learning English in Scotland

Hello English language learners and friends of Blue Noun English Language School in Scotland! Today, we’re talking a bit about doing up our English language hub.

We’re so lucky with our building. It’s an 18th-century church building that has seen several incarnations, most recently a cafe. We’re trying to turn it into an absolutely optimal space for language learning and socialising. This weekend I turned my attention to the railings…

It’s funny that ‘determined’ and ‘stubborn’ are such similar words, but the former is used to express a positive quality and the latter perceived as (and most often used as) a vice (and try ‘sheer bloody minded’ if you want the extreme).

Replica Stone in front of Scone Palace Abbey, 2020

Our English language hub gets a paint job! 

With cold weather fast approaching and one of the wettest November’s that I can remember, I was determined to get our railings painted during the brief window of mild weather we had on Monday.
 
While I say I was determined, the word stubborn was mentioned more than once on the day (and is raining down on me now that I’m sneezing about with a head cold).
 
Kenny and I were keen (another positive way to express determination) to go for the architecturally unusual colour of pink. Unusual for most places anyway, there’s a lot of pink metalwork around our area, perhaps a nod to the Jacobite tradition of painting your house facade pink, to show it as a ‘safe house’ – a place where ‘the Children of the Mist’ (the fighting men of the MacGregor clan – so named because they appeared as if from nowhere and then vanished without trace) could always find shelter and hospitality.
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
The magnificent Lawers House near Comrie, like many local buildings, has a similar pink.

For want of a pot of paint?

Or (less-romantically) perhaps, a decade ago there was a really good sale on pink paint at the local D.I.Y. shop. I really don’t know (and if you do, please comment).

Anyway, we wanted to match this pale dusky pink colour that you can see on some railings and guttering around Crieff, Strathearn and the occasional estate house windows. However, it’s clearly not popular as a modern colour choice, as it was quite hard to track down.
 
“Again, notice here that I’m using determination as a positive quality – most artists and designers want things to be just right and we don’t call them stubborn. I’d go as far as to say it is a personality trait necessary for a successful career in art.”
Ruth
 
So when does ‘determination’ tip into ‘stubbornness’? Perhaps when you find yourself painting railing in the cold and dark. It’s definitely when you know your paint might not cure because of the cold, and you go ahead and do it anyway.
My last word on the subject is ‘driven’. It means pretty much the same as the first two, in that you don’t give up. It’s a word frequently ascribed to athletes and business owners and entrepreneurs (and boy, we have to be!) and it’s certainly another 100% positive adjective.
So which am I? I’m not sure I have the right answer, but I suspect it comes down to whether my paint dries!
 
Live language learning!
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
Pinky hues in the Perthshire landscape
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
And just because it’s so beautiful, this wonderful building beside Loch Freuchie!
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
English Language hub learning English in Scotland
The work in progress!

We hope you’ve enjoyed finding out more about our English language school in Perthshire – and how we are turning it into the English language hub of our dreams. 

We cover a broad range of topics in our language school blogs – some a lighthearted look at Scotland, others an in-depth look at art and culture. There’s something for everyone.

If you’ve liked this blog, you might want to read another about our language school – this one introduces our classes and teaching methodology:

Are books still good resources for an English language class?

 

Your Blue Noun English Language Challenge is:

Imagine yourself in a brand new pink shirt.

We’re practising the conditional structure here.

Would you wear a pink shirt? What would your friends and family say? How would it make you feel?

Obviously, please keep any responses free from any derogatory comments about homosexuality. For example, pink was a colour associated with expressing homosexuality in the UK in the 80s/90s. It’s fine to say so, but this is not the place to be pejorative about sexual orientation.

Tell us about it in the comments below. Write as much as you like, and if you would like us to check &  correct your English, write CP  (correct please) at the end.

Live language learning!

 

“Imagine yourself in a brand new pink shirt or blouse”

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