英語趣味課堂：自由安排-Free Schedule

Adria: So since we're talking about home schooling, what are some of the pros and cons that you feel of home schooling?

Shiloh: Well one of the good things about home schooling is definitely that you are able to work off of your own schedule. I didn't have to wake up early every morning. If I did, I could get my work done early. The amount of work that I had, the time I spent doing it was dependent upon me and my schedule and how much time I wanted to work. I had almost the same amount of work as all of my other friends in real schools but the difference was I didn't have scheduled breaks or lunches or anything so if I sat down for four hours and I just wanted to work straight, then I could finish a whole day's worth of work in four hours. That's a good thing about it, I was able to travel and some days I wouldn't even do any school work because I'd be busy doing other things but that meant that I would have to do two days some other time. One of the bad things was that I didn't get to meet quite as many new people. I didn't have the typical high school experience which I feel shapes a lot of who people are. I wasn't able to meet friends in that sense, in the high school sense. I still have great friends and I'm not a loner by any means but it was difficult to meet friends.

Adria: So did you find yourself slacking off? Some days you didn't do any school work because you were too busy but did you find yourself taking many breaks or not wanting to do school work sometimes?

Shiloh: Yeah, that's a big problem I think with home schooling. The student really has to be self-motivated and if the student is not self-motivated, then the parent who is doing the home schooling has to be very strict because it's really easy to just not do your work or to fake it and kind of do it badly and it's really important that somebody is there to drive you to do it well and to finish everything. Fortunately I'm a fairly motivated guy and I always wanted to get my work done because I always had better things to be doing and I knew that if I didn't do it today, I'd have to do it twice tomorrow.

Adria: So do you think that's something home schooling taught you was self-motivation that maybe other kids lack?

Shiloh: I think so. It taught me self-motivation and also it taught me how to plan things out. I was able to plan out my day and my schedule. I would think to myself well tomorrow I want to do this thing, I want to go do this which means I have to do this today in order to do this tomorrow.

重點詞匯：

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

by any means

I still have great friends and I'm not a loner by any means but it was difficult to meet friends.

We include the phrase by 'any means' to make a statement stronger. Notice the following:

He's not a bad student by any means. Just a little lazy.

I will not by any means agree to that!

slack off

So did you find yourself slacking off?

The term slack off means to slow down and relax a little. Notice the following:

I often slack off when the boss leaves.

Don't slack off yet, we're almost finished.

self-motivated

The student really has to be self-motivated.

Someone who is self motivated is hard-working and enthusiastic. Notice the following:

He needs to become more self-motivated.

I'm just not self motivated.

fake

It's really easy to just not do your work or to fake it.

When we fake something, that means we pretend to do it. Notice the following:

He faked a smile for the TV cameras.

She knew I lied. I just couldn't fake it.

plan out

I was able to plan out my day and my schedule.

'Plan' and 'plan out' have exactly the same meaning. We can use either. Notice the following:

Let's plan a vacation.

Let's plan out a vacation.