3. Heini, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
Free-form reflection

ALMS REFLECTION
The actual studying of English began on the fifth grade. It was exciting to start with English because at that time it felt cooler than sitting on German lessons. My teacher was sweet, made the language feel interesting and didn’t put too much pressure for learning. We played games and watched videos in addition to real studying. There was hardly any oral rehearsal.
Two of my teachers in high school were demanding but excellent. I worked hard on their courses even though I did not get as good degrees as from the third teacher. I did not have any stress about her lessons but did not put much effort on the subject. Thus I didn’t learn too much either.
I was never really good or really bad in English. Of all languages English is the one that many people speak very well. That’s why I wasn’t anything special and that’s probably why I focused on other languages. In high school we started to have much more oral practise through discussions and presentations, about which we did not get much feed-back. Since there is no oral test in matriculation examination we didn’t focus on spoken English.
After high school I have only read some five or ten books in English and few newspapers. I enjoy watching movies especially with British accent. I have little time for free-time reading because of the course books and that’s why I try to read the so called nice books in foreign languages. That way there is some excuse for reading fiction, too. Many of my course books in university are in English but reading them is not nice at all. Even if I tried to think so, the texts are still too difficult.
I am very eager to speak English every time I have an opportunity to do so. In my job in the Old Market Hall I meet a lot of tourists from all over the world. Naturally, most of them speak English. That is why I also hear lots of different accents when having conversations with people for instance from Ireland, Canada and Australia. What I think is the most delighting is the famous British politeness.
My greatest weaknesses are poor vocabulary, which difficulties my understanding of academic texts and shyness, which is the reason I don’t speak as much as I ought to. Being uncertain of own skills makes it hard to open the mouth in situations, in which others speak more professionally. Before I came to university I could hardly make a presentation of any kind. I still am almost terrified if I must speak in public and the situation is even more difficult in foreign language. However, I can now identify my problem and try to get rid of it. In university I have received a lot of feed-back about my presentations and I expect and hope my skills to develop.
At the moment I have two main goals for my English studies. The one is to learn to read academic literature smoothly. To make that possible I must improve my vocabulary and before all read more. I hope I will learn to read English faster than two pages a day. The other goal is to have courage to speak and do it properly. That I can gain only by using the language as much as possible in different situations. I am not particularly interested in working or studying abroad but I must find ways to speak, hear, write and read English in Finland.