How long have I studied English? I have almost learned English over twenty five years!! Twenty five years is way too long.
When I first encountered the English alphabet, I was five years old. My mother emphasized the importance of early English education. From memory, the first institution to learn English was like a kindergarten. I still remember that I sang in English with dance routine and how much I liked to do that. I am pretty sure that I did not know what the songs meant at that time. However, I was willing to participate in the activity.
After that time, as most students around my age, I started learning English as a regular curriculum when I attended a junior high school. Like anyone who was a student at that time, I focused on developing my English grammar and reading comprehension so I tried to memorize the certain grammar books and vocabulary and get the knack how to solve the problem. Even though I did well in English at school, I had no confidence of speaking in English.
When I turned twenty years old, I realized that studying English is not just focusing on grammar and reading comprehension but focusing on all four domains; speaking, writing, listening, and reading. At that time, I went to Canada to study on the advice of my parents. When I arrived, I did not know anybody in Canada. I cannot forget the first day I approached Canada. A beautiful blond who was affiliated to language institution came out to meet me at Toronto Pearson International Airport. For driving down to London where I planned to study, we barely talked to each other. My head was in a whirl. I felt pathetic. Although I had studied English over 10 years, I could not speak in English at all in front of a native speaker.
During first two months, I was very quiet. Looking back upon those days, I spoke less than 10 sentences in a day because I had pressure to utter grammatically correct sentences. Naturally, I nearly had no chance to get along with my homestay family. Over time, I lost my confidence. At that time, there was a teacher who gave me a chance to change my life. Her name is Cathy. In our Language school, her class was famous for tough assignments. I just remembered that I had really hard time; I had a listening and speaking test once a week, writing journals about TV program which I like and a reading comprehension test after reading articles about Canada, and so on. However, I am sure that I have improved English through her class. The most importantly, she gave me confidence.
Among various assignments, I have some memorable ones.
First, we had a class trip once a month. Because she was a huge sports fan, we went various stadiums; ice hockey, soccer, baseball and basketball and do on. Whenever we went to field trip, we had a mission. We had to give an interview to Canadian. And then, we had to present who was the interviewee in the next class. It helps me to be used to speak in English in front of other people.
Second, we needed to write journals about TV program that we liked to watch. At first, I was difficult to write something because I barely understand what was going on in the show. It was really stressful. Fortunately, in Canada, most channels’ schedules were filled with repeats. I realized the more I watched the reruns, the more I wrote something on my journal. Even though I returned my journal covered with red proofreading marks, I enjoyed writing in English.
Third, we had a listening and speaking test every week. Every time, she prepared 15 minutes of listening materials. After we listened to the record tape, she asked us some questions. At first, she hardly corrected what we spoke in English. She more focused on whether we understood the content rather than whether we uttered grammatically correct sentences. Some student complained that she was too slipshod. Later, we could know why she did that. It was a tactic to encourage us to speak in English. As time passed, she more put into our grammatical construction.
Thanks to teacher Cathy, I could entrance into a university in my eighth month in Canada. Of course, I had more difficult times at university. However, I could start my school life more delightfully and graduate without any problem. Even now, I have learned English. And I have a long way to go. However, based on Cathy’s teaching, I can know how to improve my English fluency.
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