My name is
Cristine and I'd like to tell you how I learned English on my
own. Here, in Brazil we have English teaching since high school,
where only basic grammar is taught. Most of the time there is
conversation practice.
I was amazed at
the language, often spoken in the great films, wonderful songs
... then, decided to start studying at Fisk School when I was 39
years old. There was I between teenagers, learning the basic
grammar, the same which I had learned when I was still in the
high school a long time ago..
As I got pregnant
with my little son, had to quit studying after the last basic
level, two months before delivering him, and there wasn't any
chance to keep studying...
But, I didn't
give up on the will of learning the language...and started
studyig on my own, by the words of songs, exploring all the
websites, searching for grammar teaching.
At one point I
knew some of the grammar ... maybe enough to have a conversation
without having to interrupt the chat to look for a translation.
But...That wasn't
enough once I had to learn how to speak.
I started joining
Paltalk chatrooms, very shy...but could hear and recognize some
words.
Then...my friends
online started phoning me. They encouraged me a lot to keep
practising, but I was still shy to speak...afraid of being funny
at speaking.
The next step was
repeating words of songs... singing with no fears. Learning how
to move the tongue to get the similar pronunciation.
It helped me a
lot, once after that time I could understand some of the music
words.
I used to buy
crosswords magazines... translating some jokes to my friends,
increasing my vocabulary day after day.
It was funny to
translate some words, daring to make essays about my life. My
vocabulary was getting bigger and I wasn't noticing that.
I used to play
games with words ... and kept trying.
I used to test my
English skills on websites, and those tests helped me a lot...
Then..World English is the most complete site of teaching
English.
Today, I have no
problem at speaking, writing or reading English books. As in my
own language I may look for a different word to know its meaning
in the dictionary.
Despite I am
always looking for grammar teaching, most people are amazed when
I speak in English.
All we need to
learn something is to lose the fears of trying. Everybody can
learn. It takes some time but it is worthy of the work.
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