Name: Jocélio Grangeiro Vieira

English, why?

1 – My first experience with English.

My English learning experience is not out of the ordinary. I started to study English during secondary school in Paraíba. I got very interested in English and because of it, I used to make some questions to an American nun who lived in my town. She noticed that I was really interested in the language but she was not interested in teaching me, although I and other boys of my age were in touch with her all the time because of the church. Below, there are some pictures of my homeland Areial.

1 2 3

4 5 6

1- The yellow house next to the blue one is where I lived with my parents for over six years before moving to our own house.

2- The church where I used to go and where I had my first experience with an English native speaker.

3- It is downtown near the church.

4- The main avenue.

5- A place in front of my first house. (cachorra de cócuras)

6- The market where I used to work with my father fixing electronic devices.

2 – English in my town

From the fourth to the eighth grade I studied English in the Behaviorism way. Our classes used to follow the Structuralism. We did not have a context to support our classes. The teacher taught us how to pronounce the words, but our very focus was on reading. To accomplish a good reading, we had to translate many isolated sentences, such as:

This is a pen

This is a table

This is an eraser

This is a blackboard, and so on.

Sentences became complicated throughout the years, and the method was always the same. We started to create some small dialogues in order to talk to other students in the classroom. As I did not know something different, I just loved it. In addition to the method, my teacher was the same for many years, during secondary school.

Years passed and my desire to learn English did not disappear. I knew that learning English in my town was quite impossible just because of the input we need to learn a language and there it was rather insufficient. Then I started to listen to rock’n’roll (in English of course): Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns’N’Roses, Beatles, and mainly Pink Floyd with “Another Brick in the Wall”, and others. However it was not enough because English was not so important in our town and people did not care about it at all. Although I liked English so much, the strangest thing was that I did not know where or how I could use it for communicating to other people. At that time, I intended to learn English just for fun. I had no perspective on using it.

As I did not want to be just one more brick in the town wall, I thought that by learning English I could be different from the other men in my town. But as it was not so easy for me to learn the language there, I got frustrated. I did not have the enough money to pay for a course, so the only way that I had was to learn it by myself. Then, I learned lots of grammar rules but not how to speak the language.

3 – My experiences out of my town

High School

Attempting to have a better life, I decided to go to Redentorista, a school where I could study electronics or communication systems. At that time I discovered that I was unable to be an electronic professional because I could not stand all the pressure the school demanded from us. I had to study hard and I was not familiar with studying hard. As a result, my brain stopped working properly and I had to give up school. It was very frustrating to me because I liked electronics. Furthermore, my father worked fixing electronic devices, and I though it was a great job. It was the first time I perceived that I could use English to improve my studies, and consequently, my life. Unfortunately, I did not bear the hard work in this school.

São Paulo

Leaving high school, I traveled to São Paulo where I lived for almost five years. There I worked as a waiter for a long time. Doing such, I had the opportunity to know people from many places abroad. During the period I lived in “Sampa”, I returned to my hometown many times to visit relatives. In one of those trips, I knew a group from Holland. They were in touch with my sister, for she worked in the church, and they had come to make some religion tasks. Because of it, they had to be in contact with sister frequently. As I was in my hometown and the Dutch group as well, I decided to communicate in English with them. However, it was a disgusting experience because I discovered that I just knew nothing about English. I got frustrated. On the other hand, my writing was very good, so I wrote letters for one person from the group, a girl called Neoletta. Our letter exchanged lasted for about two years. But it has been over since long time ago.

I met the Dutch group during the period I was having an experience as a primary school teacher. This experience made me to find out that my dream of learning English was not an impossible task to me. Keeping this in mind, I returned to São Paulo. There I did not get a job, and I got depressed because I did not have any money for paying my studies. I thought the only solution for me was to go back to Paraíba, to home. It was only then, that one of my sisters, who was living in Contagem, in Minas Gerais, invited me to come to Minas Gerais.

Minas Gerais

I accepted the invitation, and I started to work in a restaurant in BH. In this restaurant I had the opportunity of meeting some foreigners, and step by step, I got convinced that I could continue studying and finish my high school, for, because of my mental problem, I spent many years out of school, without studying. As a result, I did not finish my high school. In order to finish it, I took supletivo here.

I also tried to study in a language institute: CCAA. but I did not like the method they used there. As I had no other possibility, I managed to go to college because I had already decided to be an English teacher. To go to college, I took a preparation course, where I studied a little bit more of English. Then, It was me studying at UFMG, where I was not expected to be. During my graduation I studied at ICBEU but also I didn’t like its method: it takes a long time. At FALE - UFMG, I discovered that I could take a course at CENEX and I did, but I didn’t like the method as well. So I did not finish it.

The place where I really enjoyed studying English was at college. At UFMG, I had the opportunity to discover what I liked the most: studying grammar. After this discovering, I managed to study as much grammar as possible. I took Skill I, II, and III, which are mandatory. Moreover, I took other subjects, Phonology, Syntax, Oral Skills, some topics in Linguistic studies, for example. It was then that I deduced that I had to work hard in my graduation and learn what I needed to be a teacher. Since so, I have dedicated much of my time to learn the language. Later on, by becoming a monitor and after that a teacher at Pré- UFMG, I had the opportunity to develop my English language skills. Now that I intend to finish my graduation soon, I am preparing to continue my studies in Linguistics. After all, I discovered that I like English so much and my aim is to go farther. Ph.D. here I come!

4 – The greater example I have tried to follow

Plato

The ideas of Socrates through Plato made me look at the world differently.

5 – Important Document

This document is the symbol that summarizes my conquests: My life was and is a challenge because I have many things to accomplish. This document represents one of those objectives. This is just the first one in terms of studying. More is to come!