ESL Blogs

English has always been my passion ever since I was a child. How was that possible? A mystery I could not fathom. None of my family member speaks English. Neither my friends. Not even my neighbours. Once, when I was about nine or ten years old, I tried to practice my English with a distance cousin. I uttered a few sentences that I picked up at school to her. Hopefully she would answer me back in English. Instead, she laughed at me.

Finally, I had the opportunity to practice my speaking at Secondary School. I only had chances to speak with English teachers. At that time, I was not yet reach my high level as far as speaking is concern. Probably I just had jinx in me. My peer students avoided me whenever I spoke in English to them. However, none of this had weakened my spirit to keep practicing my speaking.

When I was 19 years old, I finally spoke in English with one male friend. I vaguely wondered why the environment was dimmed, almost dark. Oh, it was at night and we were talking by the road side, under a dim street fluorescent lamp.  He asked me something, I answered him back. Both of us spoke fluently in English. Then suddenly I woke up, back to reality. It was only a dream. I tried very hard to remember any word we uttered in the conversation. None was verbalised.

The dream thrilled me. I was hoping it would happen again. Soon enough, God answered my wish. It happened again after that. It was during a visit to my sister’s staff quarters. She shared a very small room with three other roommates. I remembered sleeping on her double-decker bunk. It was around 5am, my sister tried to wake me up for breakfast. Without opening my eyes, I said something to her in English. I kept talking for a while until my sister could not hold her patience any longer. She started to shake my body. I finally opened my eyes with a sight of her puzzled face. She told me that I was talking English in my sleep. It was again gibberish, hence, she could not understand any of it.

I was so eager to speak English but had a very limited vocabulary. Neither friends who could speak English. However, my situations changed tremendously after I started my first job.