Name: Ana Claúdia de Sousa
The first time I
had an English class was in 1984
(
yes! 21 years ago! I haven't realized that it was so long ago!). I was just
13 years old and I can say that, despite the teaching method of "the book
is on the table", I fell in love with it!
My first English
class was at Colégio
Arquidiocesano de BH,
and my teacher was a
nice middle-aged woman.
I can't remember how classes were at that
time, but I remember the book we used – it was by Amadeu Marques.
In 1986 I started
studying English in language schools.
I studied in many schools, and the first one
was CENEX/FALE.
Yes! Believe me! I
studied at CENEX 19 years ago!
I remember that
there was not a portable CD player as nowadays
– it was not even a K7 player! – it
was an old fashioned tape player, with two big tape rolls!
Cd Player nowadays 
Tape
player at CENEX in the 80's
I
took the basic course at CENEX,
the intermediate and
advanced courses at Yázigi,
I prepared for the
FCE test at Cultura Inglesa (I got this certificate in 1992),
I took
conversation courses at Universitas (I think it
doesn't exist anymore!) and Luziana Lanna,
and finally I
prepared for the CAE test
(I got this certificate in 2000) at MAI.
I can say that in
my life
I had many opportunities because of the
English I learnt! I'll list just some of them:
1 - I could work in a company for almost 10 years as a
product manager.
The company Instant Shop imports products from
different countries.
I was the person who did research on foreign product catalogues,
who made contact with
the foreign suppliers, etc.
2 – I could visit
the
The first time was
in 1998, when I went there to study English for one month.
I stayed in Fort Lauderdale,
I could visit
3 – In 1999 I went
to Chicago on business to visit
a tradeshow.
That city is my
favorite among all!
Every time I see
it on TV or anywhere else I feel like crying!
4 – In 2001 I
could go back to
After the
tradeshow I went to
One of the best
things I made was
to watch the play "The Lion
King" on Broadway, NY.
If you visit this
site, you can listen to part of the soundtrack
– just check if the
music is turned on or off! –
there is a key on the
up/right side of the webpage,
just above the
"box office" column).
Boston is also a lovely city that is
worth a visit!
5 – In 2002 I
started studying English at LETRAS/UFMG,
because I wanted to work
with English.
At that time I
didn't know if I wanted to be a teacher or not. I'm going to graduate in
December/2005.
I've been learning
a lot!
5 – In 2004 I went to San Antonio,
It
was just great! I could improve my English a lot!
As you can see,
I've been investing my time (and money of course!)
in my English
learning, and I'm happy with it.
After all, I hope I'll
be able to be a good English teacher!
The End