How I learned English by myself (part 1)
I was looking for a job the other day. And I have been impressed...how different everyone sounded when they spoke English.
I was applying for a job in a Call Center, who works supporting other companies like retail, tech support, debt collection and customer care between their services. And those starting weeks, I managed to listen to everyone, how they sound like really different people when they speak in English.
Some sound more American than others. Others sound more like British or Australian. And myself, I was on that not-that-desirable range of sounding like a Colombian, because of my genetic range and wavelengths. However, I never felt ashamed about it, until I started speaking with more older Americans over time...
Anyways. Let's go back into the topic. My new teammates and I were presenting ourselves, the basic questions, about our favorite foods, our hobbies, about our previous experience selling things and about how we managed to learn English. Some of the people were speaking a bit slowly, others were able to be fluent and confident.
I remember speaking about how I did like to read, to write, to play video games (because, yes!!!! usually I don´t present myself as liking to play video games, specially in a professional environment, but because already other 5 people presented themselves as gamers, I did not wanted to lose my opportunity of telling this).
About how my favorite breakfast is eating hojaldre with sausage stew
and tomato sauce, with a bit of fried egg and a slice of cheese. About how I
was able to tell people about my experience with common procedures around
companies like training, contracts, and how to promote the sale of
technology products. About my expertise with the Nintendo Switch and the
computers, how I love to stay up to date with technology in general, mainly
to see the video games and movies at TV.
And about a specific ice-breaking game we did, answering one question:
"If you were to sell a product or service, which thing would be? Also
try to tell me the features of your offer, so you can convince
me".
Hello! Here’s Efra writing. I am going to share with you, my story about how I learned English quickly by myself, on my own. Growing up at school.
Okay, so, when I was a child, I did not know the world worked around different languages until I was in first grade at elementary school. I started to pick up a quick interest on English after noticing something.
The first movies I watched in my life, all of them had their material dubbed in English, and subtitles on Spanish were available on most TV channels for those famous programs such as the Warner’s ones, like Friends, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and some others. Also the Cars movie, I noticed something different after watching both the dubbed and subtitled versions early in my life.
The first videogames I played, most of them that were released in America...they were in English! Pokémon Stadium 2, Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Crystal, also Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Luigi’s Mansion...
I was a bit amazed and surprised at the time, how the early games of the era of N64, GBA and GC were all in English in Panama...later on in life, I was flabbergasted when I found, those SAME games were available in Spanish, but only for Europe! Sadly, my parents couldn’t visit Spain when I was a child so I could play those versions, on my early gaming journey.
Also, they didn’t have any RESEMBLANCE of the possibility of getting games overseas...so yeah, until we managed to reach the epoch of the first Latin American written games for the Wii and DS, it was when we discovered that we could also buy video games with the Spanish language available.
I almost forgot to mention that at the same time, I was around 5th and 6th grade on school. That’s when I discovered my love for reading, especially some blue English student books called Best Friends, I don’t remember the editorial at the moment because I lost those books when I moved to my second house 🙁 But these books were great 😊 I really liked how these were. Most of them had stories about how a group of friends managed to complete their school year assignments, and also sharing games like playing hide-and-seek, doing an arts and crafts project, and experimenting with telling stories and feelings between each other. I read those books very often and became proficient at completing the OTHER series of English books that used my school, because at the time, my older brother and I were in different high schools.
My first English teacher that I interacted often with, teacher Elba, was very kind to me, and also very firm with her teachings. I think she shared a special charisma with me because I managed to ace most tests, she even let me skip some exams due to my max grades all across the board! That felt awesome, I did not knew it was possible at the time. She also taught us how to pray the Lord's Prayer, Our Father. Although, here in Panama I haven’t heard to this date a full Mass in English, but it was nice to compare how these prayers sound in other regions of the world.
After that, I managed to be like, the official translator at my house 🤣 whenever my brother wanted to understand something in English, like in a videogame or manual for example, he would just ask me instead of looking into the computer. My mom and dad, who weren’t raised with English skills at the time, also often requested my help when reading the manual of new tech gadgets, the ingredients of their new sauces, and also websites about new trucks for sale when my dad wanted to search for a new one.
I graduated with honors and a very great English level from that first school, and then when I came back to my second school, I managed to meet professor Robinson. And he, was, FIRE!
Like, one of the most challenging teachers I have ever met in my life. He was one of the Percious Two, as I like to call them, the most influential teachers in my epoch of the second school. The other one was a Physics teacher, but I preferred to spend my time with Mr. Robinson.
He is very humble, but also a very proud and painteresque character. Born from the land of Nueva Esperanza, he loved very much the art of teaching since he was 20 years old, staying at work on the same high school for a long time. I think he also managed to teach a bit at our regional center of the USMA University...? I don’t remember well...
During class, he stated a rule, that we should only, and ONLY speak in English while he was present. And it was very interesting to witness the experience, because teacher Elba kept using Spanish words from time to time, but never enforced such a strong policy. At the start, people stumbled and only a few of my friends were able to keep up with him...his classes were very simple, with a HEAVY focus on conversation, with the called “Class Discussions” events.
Every week, a pair of students may share a little video or presentation of
10 minutes about the topic they wanted. I remember one pair of friends spoke
about Wattpad, other pair spoke about politics, and I managed to speak about
the videogame League of Legends and it’s impact on teaching teamwork, and
inspiring art and music. I even showed a musical video of Instalok, my
teacher thought it was a official marketing video 🤣🤣🤣 but it was only a
fan-supporting video, of the game...like a cover of one song with new
lyrics.
(It was the Car-Veigar one, I think).
I used to present this at high school.
My teacher was very different from your usual English Teacher. His theory
classes were very simple: he showed us phrases and vocabulary, mainly used
as "idioms" or "refranes" in Spanish. Here in the image below you can see
some examples.
Those idioms are a wonderful tool. Often, people at USA are very unkind to
foreigners because they can detect when someone is not having the real deal
with genetic American accents. However, some become very forgiving and
understanding when we pop off some of the
idiomatic expressions
from time to time. Including things like "Close the deal", "Bottom line",
"To cut it short", and "Smooth sailing" (this last one is my favorite to use
when the customer is doing good when processing their
transaction).
After this and the Class Discussions, we usually do lecture classes, where we read a book with up to date topics, and discussed the news in our tests. It was very hard to ACE a test with him in occasions, because you had to use one of the idiomatic expressions to explain a "Real Life Event" that you could see in the news. How we were supposed to do that?!?!? I guess you had to watch the news, but Panama TV channels only offer news in Spanish, not in English, according to my knowledge...
After this and the Class Discussions, we usually do lecture classes, where we read a book with up to date topics, and discussed the news in our tests. It was very hard to ACE a test with him in occasions, because you had to use one of the idiomatic expressions to explain a "Real Life Event" that you could see in the news. How we were supposed to do that?!?!? I guess you had to watch the news, but Panama TV channels only offer news in Spanish, not in English, according to my knowledge...
Well...this story has been extended very long...I will post the second part of this article soon after.
I like telling stories. I really love the power writers and storytellers
have when sharing an exciting tale of a quest, whenever it is a real
life-based one or a fantasy one. But sometimes they require being splitted
up for the sake of something 🤣 maybe that's something that keeps some
fandoms alive but anyways. I am still happy for you listening and reading my
stories 🥰
Right now I am at my desk taking a well earned break after my wisdom tooth
removal, resting. But I will come back. And stronger...
Thanks for reading, have a nice day ~
References of pictures:
- Front page Image:
- Icebreaker: Icebreaker GIF - Icebreaker - Descubrir y compartir GIFs (tenor.com)
- British Man gift: https://tenor.com/bVz48.gif
- Cars movie poster Cars - 2006 - Pixar - Disney - Movie Poster - US Release Teaser #1 | eBay
- Language Selection Screen: File:Language selection screen example.png - Wikimedia Commons + How to Change Language in Nintendo Wii? - YouTube
- Black Teacher image, and student studying greetings above: Image by Freepik
- Common English Idioms image: https://www.thoughtco.com/common-english-idioms-3211646
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