Name: Aimée Ferreira Costa

How it all started…
I started learning English when I was 9 years old, but I believe
I fell in love with the language back when I was 5 or 6, and started going to the movies with my parents. I have clear memories of “Herbie” ( Se meu Fusca falasse), the first version, like 30 years ago….Oops, I think I have just confessed my Jurassic age…
   
                           
Also, “The Enchanted Mountain” was neat as well as the “Trinity” series ( “ My name is Trinity” ) a kind of farwest comedy series we were just crazy about. It felt really strange to go see those films and know nothing about that language. My father, who is a funny person, used to say that he could speak English, and it took me years to find out his English knowledge was restricted to adding the suffix “ation” to everything you could think of, and of course, “rolling” his tongue to any “r” sound he could grasp in the words.
My schools and I…
     
But, no matter how flaky my father’s English was, he was a great enthusiast of languages, so I had his full support in order to learn English…decently, let’s say! So, there I went, to my first year of a long story of love with the language, to my first formal English classes, at the ETIMIG School (Escola de Tradutores e Intérpretes de Minas Gerais). The method was pretty much audiolingual, we used to have lots of “slide shows”, we had to repeat dialogues and role play them with our classmates also. I loved it! Every class was a new discovery, a new word, a new lesson… I was thrilled, and I worked hard to improve my skills and feel more comfortable with the language.
 
                   
But I have to confess, I have never been shy, any chance I had to speak, to interact, to suggest something or give my opinion was truly appreciated…by me, mainly! For me, anything was a great excuse to use what I had learned.

I spent 2 years at ETIMIG and then moved to ICBEU (Instituto Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos/ http://www.icbeu.com.br ), a school where I would spend the next 6 years of my life studying English and making friends, learning lots of new things and having a new perspective of the language. There, we had lots of good quality reading and at the age of 12, there I was reading Irwin Shaw, Somerset Maugham and Shakespeare’s short adaptations, amazed and delighted about every piece of it…
   
     
And then came the trips…

 
               
                 
The first place I remember fully using my little knowledge of English language was in Ouro Preto, this gorgeous historical city close to Belo, famous for its history and lots of foreign tourists, so whenever I went there I tried to dig a chance to speak. I wanted real life experiences, real usage of the language I loved to speak…

After that, I started traveling abroad and improving my fluency and the vocabulary files in my mind. The more I traveled, the more at ease I felt about speaking, listening and expressing myself, in all circumstances. I have traveled so far to many different places, mainly in the United States, where my fiancé lives. We went to Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Alaska, California, England and , funny enough, when we were in Mexico trying to speak our poor Spanish with the Mexicans, guess what, nobody wanted to do that, they wanted to practice their English with us…That was a little disappointing!

Well, that’s it for now, but I still have lots of memories and thoughts about my learning process and love affair with this beautiful language: English!
 
The next chapter of my Multimidia Narrative will be dedicated to:
       
     
The songs of my English story...
 
I believe one of the most meaningful ways to learn a second language ( or third, or fourth...) is through music. No matter how hard the language might seem to you, if you love that particular song, the need to be able to sing it will make up for any difficulty. It wasn't different for me, and I felt a great pleasure in learning new songs, translating their lyrics and performing them in the shower for myself or while doing the houselhold chores for my poor family. I remember lyrics I learned when I was 11, and can still sing them by heart. When you are singing, grammar and vocabulary become secondary and all you want to do is feel the song and the emotion it provokes on you. But, amazingly enough, when you least expect, you can recognize and use the grammar and the vocabulary you have seen in that song easily, because you weren't actually paying that much attention on them...I guess that is what we can call learning thru meaning! I have selected three songs that, in very different periods of my life, were meaningful and helped me cope with different sorts of difficulties. I hope you enjoy them.

 
           
             
         
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
U2
Composição: U2

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you (x 2)

I have run I have crawled
I have scaled
These city walls (x 2)
Only to be with you

Chorus:
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire

I have spoken with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of the devil
It was warm in the night
It was cold as a stone

Chorus

I believed in the kingdom come
Then all the colours will
Bleed into one (x 2)
But yes I’m still running


You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains
You carried the cross
And my shame (x 2)
You know I believed it

Chorus (x 2)
     
           
         
         
Fool On The Hill
The Beatles
Composição: Indisponível
Day after day, alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool.
And he never gives an answer .....
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
Well on his way, his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud.
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make.
And he never seems to notice .....
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
And nobody seems to like him,
They can tell what he wants to do.
And he never shows his feelings,
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
     
 
She Will Be Loved
Maroon 5
Composição: Maroon 5

Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else

I drove for miles and miles
And wound up at your door
I've had you so many times but somehow
I want more

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay a while
And she will be loved
And she will be loved

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore

It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along
My heart is full and my door's always open
You can come anytime you want

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved

I know where you hide
Alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful

I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain, oh
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved

Please don't try so hard to say goodbye
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye
Conclusion
Well, I guess that's about all the things I believe were really important in my learning experience. I think it's fascinating to realize that the process of second language acquisition can vary so much from one person to another, and that it isn't predictable. What can be challenging and motivating for me, might be meaningless for another individual. One thing is very clear for me at this point: when a person really wants to learn another language, she will find a way to make it happen, no matter how hard it might be or how little help she might get. Desire is the most powerful tool to make it happen. But then again...I guess it is the same for all the rest in our lives, right?