ESL Blogs

     I was a kid, it was night and I went to check on my father in the living room, he was reading a book, as usual I was curious to know what was it about, so I asked him to let me take a look, he gave it to me and I started reading but of course I had no clue what "English" is, I only knew it is a "language", anyway I started reading out loud and my father was laughing saying that it's not French to read it that way! at that moment I looked at him and said with confident words "well dad, one day my English will be better than yours" he smiled at me saying "I know", somehow I always loved challenging my father, because he is the only one that makes it hard for me to win, I was always independent enough to get what I want on my own.

     Anyway years passed, but somehow that promise I made once was still there, somewhere, in my memory. When middle school was about to start, while looking for a book to read at home, I found a little one, it was for teaching "English", a very simple one, with basic vocabulary words, like days; months, fruits ... things like this, I actually found the language interesting, so I read through that book, and memorized most of it, later on I started watching American movies, and as time goes by I was more interested in it, then in my last year in middle school, the first time I will have English included in my classes, I was so excited, of course we were learning the basics that I've already known, witch gave me the opportunity to get my teacher's attention, we used to draw things and name it all in English, sometimes we listen to songs and we have to find the missing words in our lyrics papers, it was really a fun year for me, the first time I decided to write something in English was a few hours before the new year, that time I wrote about what I've learned from the previous year and what I wanted my goals for the new year to be, and one of these goals I set was "learning English", and since then I started writing my diaries from time to time in English, and by the end of that year my teacher gave me a gift, it was a simple dictionary, I was so happy with that gift that I spent a lot of my summer time reading through it randomly, I was also trying to have conversations in my mind in English, besides listening to English songs, and watching movies, But in high school I had the same lazy teacher for all the three years, so never really learned anything at school, but I kept on learning my way, some of my friends were asking me how do I do it? I always had the same answer "passion",  it is the key to learning or doing anything you want, they thought I was making fun, or being sarcastic, but it is the only truth, and not even my challenge with my father, I decided learning English because I've always loved it, I enjoy learning new languages, and English absolutely grabbed my attention, I have always enjoyed every single thing I do to learn.
the first time I found EC was back in 2010 summer, but I only stayed for a few months then left, this year I am back, I met new amazing friends, and on my birthday last March I created my first skype account, and the first time I felt comfortable enough to have a voice conversation with my great friend here, it went very well, he is a respectful good guy, and since he is my close friend, it didn't feel awkward, then I joined my other friend's group and I talk occasionally to my friends and we have so much fun, however I still don't like talking to strangers for some reasons.
       Anyway, so far this is my story with English, I found my own ways to learn, I learn more if I'm enjoying it, and if you want to learn something you need "passion", I love English, I found out that I memorize much more if it is in a fun way, so I focus on watching movies and listening to songs, but no subtitles or lyrics, I can say I'm halfway there, I still have a lot to learn, but you know something? It really feels so good when you make something on your own, you and only you did it, this story of mine didn't end yet, but I can tell that it will have a happy ending!
      I have already mentioned that I will not be available in EC any more, so this is like my farewell, and for that:
      A special thanks to my close friends here and all of my friends in general,       I will never forget you guys!
      So best wishes from me!