29.04.19. To raise your level you have to play with stronger players I don't play chess but I play preference. This is a card game if you don't know (what isn't surprising because preference isn't widespread at all). My stepfather who has taught me to play preference always told me I had to play with much better players than I was if I wanted to improve my skills. I never understood why I avoided speaking English to learners whose level of knowledge was the same or even lower than mine. Now I understand. I'm visiting an intensive English course at a language school, we're working in pairs in class and look what I've noticed. Each of us is limited by his or her knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, we hardly can help one another because our levels are the same. We use simple, already known to us words and constructions because we want to be understood and to finish the exersize as quickly as possible. But it doesn't work. We do the same mistakes and there is nobody to correct us. We just don't know how it could be in a better way. We seem to be walking in a circle. We're just wasting time. Playing cards with stronger players you will lose a lot first. Actually you will lose constantly and it will be the perfect chance to learn how one can make you lose, which techniques and tricks one uses, techniques and tricks you never even guessed the existence of. Having a conversation with someone whose level of knowing English is higher than yours gives you the same privilege as if you play with a stronger player. You see your mistake, you find out the right answer (my stepfather always explained to me where I had done the mistake and how I should do instead of it, but don't expect it from another players!) and, the third, you discover something new for yourself, some new methods, techniques and tricks.