Since I was a child I´ve been in touch with English words. I can still remember that I used to look the whole package of every toy I won and because of that I soon realized that "batteries not included" was a terrible thing. This was probably the first English sentence I´ve ever understood.
During the rest of my childhood the English language was there everyday. I saw it on videogames, on movies and cartoons and mostly on those romantic songs that my parents where always listening.
My first "formal" contact with this foreign language took place when I was eleven, in 1997. It was nice to be there on a English school, with different classmates and with that lovely teacher (Sandra), who enjoyed teaching us in a very funny way, drawing nice pictures on the whiteboard to explain us what was a windows, a pencil and so on, and telling us not to be afraid of using that words we´re seeing for the very first tim. "Look at the camera" (This was the first expression that we learned in Fisk´s book).
I didn´t have bad moments in Fisk during the learning process. Being there was like being in a city on USA, mostly because of the pictures and every kind of paper in their walls that were always in English, and for everyone there being always talking in that language either.
During the rest of my childhood the English language was there everyday. I saw it on videogames, on movies and cartoons and mostly on those romantic songs that my parents where always listening.
My first "formal" contact with this foreign language took place when I was eleven, in 1997. It was nice to be there on a English school, with different classmates and with that lovely teacher (Sandra), who enjoyed teaching us in a very funny way, drawing nice pictures on the whiteboard to explain us what was a windows, a pencil and so on, and telling us not to be afraid of using that words we´re seeing for the very first tim. "Look at the camera" (This was the first expression that we learned in Fisk´s book).
I didn´t have bad moments in Fisk during the learning process. Being there was like being in a city on USA, mostly because of the pictures and every kind of paper in their walls that were always in English, and for everyone there being always talking in that language either.
The passion for the games of the NBA started in 1998 and it helped me a lot to improve not only my English reading but also my understanding of numbers, height and weights unities of the USA.
It was 2000 already when I felt confident enought to keep and all-in-English conversation on with an american-native teacher called David. After him I had some others foreign friends: Bob (2002); Elizabeth (2005) and another Elizabeth in 2006.
Songs and books also had a great influence in my learning. I believe that after 2001 I was already able to understand most part of them, but always using a dictionary, of course. My favorite is Sir Elton John, I´m afraid I still don´t have a favorite writer.
Finishing this learning journey and to arrive where I am I must say that the Language Course that I decided to study in UFPB is great and it helps me a lot to develop a real good English. I´m amazed with the super-qualified professors I´ve been meeting until now.
2 comments:
Hello Sergio! It's amazing how different people sometimes have some common tracks in English language learning process. I was sort of remembering when I was a boy just like you trying to understand what the video games characteres were talking about. The little-by-little knowledge I started building up since then has really encouraged me to keep on searching more and more in English... Nice story!
Thanks for writing this.
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