Language of the Day: Conducive
The Language of the Day Blog is a weekly blog post by our instructor. Each week will introduce a useful phrase in English and tell a story about life in Vancouver. Tune in every Tuesday for another Language of the Day post!
Language of the Day: conducive
The word "conducive" is an adjective that means to help make an outcome possible.
Examples: A cozy living room may be conducive to relaxed conversation, just as a boardroom may be conducive to more intense discussions. Particular tax policies are often conducive to savings and investment, whereas others are conducive to consumer spending.
Notice that conducive is almost always followed by to.
For you, what is conducive to a good study session? Do you need a coffee? Music? Do you like studying English on your own time, or do you find it boring or tedious?
It took me many years to enjoy studying, but I really wish I had learned how to love it earlier. It probably would have made my school years a lot easier. But once I started learning other languages in context, I finally found an environment that was conductive to studying.
Growing up, my sister and I were never allowed to be bored. Complaints were a sure-fire way to ensure that we were given chores. If we were bored, we would be put to work mowing the lawn or cleaning something, and somehow that cured our boredom.
After the initial slog, it was fun to be productive. But it was even more fun to find a hobby so that you didn’t have to do chores.
Once I picked up my language-learning hobby, studying each new word opened up a new gateway to a new conversation or a different understanding. Language learning was practical because even on days where it felt hard and like I wasn’t getting anywhere, all I had to do was go back to the familiar and see how far I’d gone.
Now I find that studying can be a chore or a hobby, but it’s just the starting part that’s hard. Once you’re in it, you’re not wasting time and you’ll be surprised to see how fast it flies! More conducive to your life than Instagram, perhaps? If not, at least follow some English speaking influencers and you can call it studying of a sort!
How do you make a mundane task more fun?