Name: Flávia Pinheiro Bernardes

I can do it on my own!

I’ve always liked languages (especially English) and could not wait to learn it. I remember how frustrated I used to get after hearing someone saying something in English and not being able to understand a word. I felt so stupid! That’s when I decided to learn it “on my own!” Yeah, that didn’t last much… I was very young, about 8, or 9 years old (I guess) and I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing. I got a little dictionary from one of my aunts, and borrow her English book. Well, as you can imagine, it was a complete disaster! I invented my own pronunciation, and “guessed” the language. After some embarrassing moments (as I used to be such a show off) I gave up.

My “love” for English

A few years went by, and my desire to learn English only increased, especially because I was a teenager at the time (about 13 years old), and was madly in love (please do not laugh) with Jon Bon Jovi. I know what you all must be thinking, but please keep in mind that I was only a child! Anyway, there I was head over hills for him, and yet I could not understand a word my “love” sang to me. Well, that’s when I decided I HAD to learn English. I used to bug my father night and day, so that he could get me enrolled in an English course, but unfortunately he wasn’t as “passionate” about the language as I was. I used to try to translate his songs word by word. It was exhausting!

Learning English in a Public School

With all my “passion” for English, I could not wait to start 5^th grade (that’s when English classes used to start). I was about 11, and very anxious… Well, things didn’t happened as I expected. First of all, classes were not motivating at all. The teacher started, at the very first class, with the verb to be. She simply explained the meaning, and wrote its conjugation on the board. And that’s basically how we spent the next two months. I don’t remember learning much from that time. We (the class) were all heading for puberty, so we wanted something new, and excited, like what we used to see on TV… All those cool people talking in English. We used to ask the teacher for songs, and movies all the time! I remember one day, when the poor woman brought a song called “brother John” and of course, we all hated. I think she lost interest in teaching, and after that day things got even worse… Well, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th were just as dull as 5^th. I’m not criticizing public schools. I have nothing against them. I’ve studied in public schools all my life, but I must confess that the English lessons were beyond boring!

The Struggle

I was in my freshman year at High School (I was a little older, and with my hormones going full throttle), when some people from a Language Course came to class one day to promote their new business. I was one the three “lucky” students who were pick to get a “free” English course. Well, I should have suspected when they said it was free… Anyway, I got back home, and kept bothering my father until he agreed to get me enrolled (it was almost impossible – I’ve never met someone as cheap as my father, so when I mentioned it was free…). When we got there, we were informed that the entirely course was free, BUT THE MATERIAL. Let’s face it: the material was so expensive, that the price of the entire course was in it. My father almost gave up, but I could not let that opportunity pass by, so I begged him not to back out on me. I was about 14, and that was something I wanted for about 6 years (and that’s a long time for a 14 year-old to wait), so he ended up agreeing with it (not without lecturing me about the sacrifice he was making, and not without making me promise I would take it seriously).

Finally having English classes!!!

The English course was called Abraham Lincoln (which some time later changed its name for Pentagono, until they went bankruptcy) and used to be right in front of my old high school (Marconi High School). Although the lessons were not always motivating, or communicative I’ve learned a lot. It lasted about 2, or 3 years, but I only enjoyed it at the end, when we started conversation classes. That’s the division they used to make: Basic I and II, Intermediate, Advance, and Conversation classes. So I only got to “talk” in English at the very end of the course.

What am I going to do now that it is over???

My biggest concern after the course ended was about how I would keep on talking English, and how could I improve it? I had nobody to talk in English, and basically zero contact with the language. That’s when we got cable TV… It was the best thing that could ever happen to me at the time! There were so many sitcoms, TV shows, and so many channels in English! I was in heaven! That’s how I REALLY learned English. I could see real English in use, and the shows were very stimulating. I used to watch Seinfeld, F.R.I.E.N.D.S., and The Simpsons. That’s basically how I learned, practiced and keep on improving my English. Those sitcoms helped me a lot. I improved my conversation skills, and became more confident.

Maintenance

My writing was not so great, but after I started in college, I found a website about pen pals, and started to exchange e-mails with people from all over the over the world. By the way, I’ve found that site when I was enrolled in another online class, with professor Vera Menezes. My pen pals corrected me every time I made a mistake, and taught me new expressions too. I even met one of my pen pals, when he came to Brazil (by accident) on vacation. Plus, I started to read a lot more than I used to, in English and that helped me a lot too… Oh, I also started teaching English and that gave me much more confidence and stimulus to keep on improving my skills.