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As you can presume by the title of this article, English is not my first language. To be clear, I am from Portugal, more specifically, from Madeira Island, so I am, obviously, Portuguese. This way, I talk the sixth language more talked in the World.
Nowadays, English is the universal language: you use English to communicate with someone of another nationality (if you don't know the native language, of course), the majority of the music that you hear on the radio is probably in English, the instructions for some game that you play are in English, and so on, you get the idea.
Taking Portugal learning system as an example - since is the one that I am familiarised with - students start to learn this language very soon. In fact, I started to learn in the first grade the very basics. My sisters are two and a half years younger than me, and they had their first contact with English by the same epoch. I suppose that today it's not that different.
With this said, since I started to learn English years ago, you might assume that I am, by now, almost a master in the current universal language. I could be, however, this is not the case. For many years I lacked the foundations: in the first years I didn't pay the due attention to the teacher and, as a result, I could not follow the matter with the passage of time. Namely, I remember once, in the seven or eight grade, in one evaluation, I was so confused and I had no idea what to write for the wording. I had the ideas in Portuguese, yet I couldn't express them in English. Well, it was an evaluation, and the writing had a minimum number of words. So, what did I decide to do? I don't remember what the theme was, but I literally write a sentence like this:
"I like this very very very very very very very very ... much"
Disgrace. It's a funny story (now), but embarrassing at the same time. Nevertheless, I hope I don't forget this episode, because if, for instance, I have a son that perhaps doesn't study properly throughout the years, I will tell him this story and ask: "You do not want to make the same embarrassing figures as me, do you?". As you can expect, I did poorly on that specific test, and I was not proud. Anyway, I continued doing a minimum effort in my English learning, because it reached a point when I did not even like the language, if I were asked to choose between English and French, I would choose French without thinking twice.
For many years I studied enough, and somehow, I managed to get reasonable grades at most evaluations. I was letting things go by until the ninth school year came, and everything changed. The teacher was way stricter, and I started panicking with the classes. I couldn't understand a lot of the lessons, and I was filled with fear that the teacher would choose me to answer a question because I could not express myself correctly, or not even realize what was being questioned. Even if I studied more, my effort didn't seem to have any results at the start. I commenced that school year really bad, yet at the end, I was a little bit better. I could tell that there was some progress, although small.
I was proud of myself for being able to finish that difficult year with average grades, but I decided that I had to do something in terms of my English. I thought "English is the universal language, I have to be able to have a conversation in this language. How am I going to do if I travel in the future? If I emigrate? How will I understand a simple English video on Youtube, without any subtitles? What if in my future profession English is a requirement?". Provided that, I asked my parents to go to the Language Academy of Madeira. My idea was to learn English at the Academy, and simultaneously continue the French, and start learning German, at school.
Furthermore, I was in the Academy for three years. When I first took the exam to see in which level of English I was, to decide my class, I was terrible, and as a result, I was placed in one of the lower levels. I was very ashamed since the majority of my colleagues was way younger than me, however, I let that feeling go, and started enjoying my journey. It was a new start in a language that already gave me a lot of headaches. After a year my comprehension was so much better, and in the second year, my writing and even my speaking had improved considerably. I was so gratified when in my third year the teacher came to me to tell me that she thought that I was prepared to do the FCE - an English language examination provided by the Cambridge Assessment English. In the end, after so many hours of study and classes, I passed, and, this proves that if you actually put an effort into a goal, you will certainly accomplish what you desire.
Following the third year in the Academy, it was time for University. Since I came to Lisbon to study Law, I couldn't keep my course at the Academy of Madeira. Despite this, I try not to forget what I have learned. Today I read a lot in English - and I am capable of understanding what I am reading -, I am also able to understand it when someone is speaking in this language, and I can make a decent writing (I hope). Unfortunately, I am still very insecure about my speaking: since it's something that I do not practise often, I have difficulties with the pronunciation of certain words, and sometimes I fear that I can say some atrocity.
To conclude, I hope that my experience can inspire you if you are having difficulties in learning a new language. If you are learning English, French, German, Italian, Korean, etc, don't forget that you have to pay attention and study hard since the beginning, otherwise you will lose the foundation that you need to become fluent in the future. Try to practise every day: doing exercises, reading a lot, speaking with someone, listening to the language... If you put effort into your work, you will succeed, and let me tell you: there is nothing better than the feeling of being accomplished. I am very proud of my progress to learn English: I was awful at the beginning - by my fault - however, I was able to understand what I was not well at and improve. As I previously stated, I am not taking English classes anymore, but I read and listen to the language almost every single day. Aliferous is a magnificent way to keep increasing my writing, and I hope I can decently express myself through my articles.
Lastly, let me finish with a little bit of humour, and talent, with this IN2IT song: "Sorry For My English". The title says it all!
I hope you are having an astonishing day!
Nb: I do not own this video and picture and I am not trying to infringe copyright here.
Mariana Nunes
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6 comments
do not apologise if your language skills in English is not at par with your expectation. As it turned out, its not your first language so, its only normal that you needed time to master it. Just immerse yourself more on the language by watching English movies, reading books or articles, listening to songs or audiobooks and, participating in a conversation on this language.Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice! It's like I said, I try to do read in English as much as I can, and I want to keep improving in both my writing and speaking. It's a matter of practice. Have a nice day! :) - Mariana
DeleteGood for you Ali. Learning English is tough. I am a native speaker and cannot speak it well LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Ahah I have my days like that, even with my native language. Have a nice day! - Mariana
DeleteThere's nothing to be ashamed of. You've improved so much and I am sooooo proud of you! x
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jesi! At least we have funny stories of my progress in English to laugh. That is very, very, very, very great. 😁 😘 😘
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