My Journey Learning English

Have you ever felt shy to start a conversation in English with someone else? That is one of the reasons I joined the ESL class because I didn’t feel confident with my English skill. I was afraid I couldn’t deliver my message clearly, and also it was sometimes quite difficult for me to understand what people were saying, especially when they were speaking fast. For example, when I visited a doctor, there were a lot of medical terms that I didn’t understand. Thus, these events forced me to learn English so I can communicate well with others.

I started learning English when I was in middle school. At first, it felt so difficult for me because I didn’t learn English during elementary school. However, most of the students in the middle school already had English lessons since they were coming from a private school, so they already had basic knowledge in the class. Therefore, I was afraid that I couldn’t keep up with the others in the class. I still remember that one day, the teacher gave us a page of a comic that we should translate into our language. I was frozen because I couldn’t understand a single word. I struggled with the class and I felt left behind. Then, to help me get back on track, I joined the after-class program. Nevertheless, I think it was quite difficult to learn because we don’t speak English on a daily basis.

My learning progress has changed since I moved to the United States. Because most people speak English, I felt motivated to learn more about the language. I voluntarily signed up to be a chaperone for my son’s class field trip. I wanted to be a chaperone because it could be a great opportunity for me to learn English by talking with kids. Furthermore, I joined the conversation club from a public library called Talk Time. It was about an hour-long weekly conversation with topics about American culture such as Thanksgiving and Halloween. I joined the one in Edmonds library since it was close to where I lived at the time, and it was organized by volunteers who also become group leaders as moderators. We also sometimes met at a coffee shop near the library, or we had a potluck party in one of the group members’ houses. At a potluck party, everyone brought their own food, and it was such a blast because most participants came from different countries, so we could taste food from different parts of the world. I had a chance to make a small community with the members. Unfortunately, I needed to move away from Edmonds, so I couldn’t attend the meeting anymore.

When I moved to Seattle, I was also looking for another conversation club. But then the pandemic started, and suddenly everything moved to online platforms. I found King County Library has online ESL Talk Time as well, and I signed up for it. In the beginning, it felt different since I was not used to the online learning format where sometimes everyone was trying to speak at the same time. Moreover, my internet connection was not good enough so it became one of the issues. As time went by, the online format was getting better, and I could start enjoying the online conversation. Unlike in-person meetings, the bond between participants was still different, or maybe that is because I was not present quite long enough to join.

All in all, learning English in an English-speaking country is more fun and enjoyable. It naturally forces me to speak the language on a daily basis. When I was trying to learn English in my home country, we only spoke English during class. It was difficult to practice my English outside the class since English was uncommon in the city where I lived. It was only well-educated people in big cities usually spoke the language at that time. Thus, I felt big differences when I started learning English in the United States.