My little story of English Learning

The Beginning

I started learning English when I was around 15 years old. That is, if you can really call that “learning”. The teacher at the school was not that bad, but the classes were always the same: we would read one of the texts from the text book we used and answer those “kind of” dumb questions.

Oh no!

The questions our book provided were not of the kind that made you really think and reflect about the text, or struggle to grasp any meaning. As homework we would translate the same text. The next class would then be the very same, with another text but exactly the same activities on it. I was interested in English at that time, but not that much. I used to do every translation home work, because I found the activity pleasant. But during the classes I used to be very bored and not motivated at all. I needed lots of...

What perhaps made a difference to me is that at that time I was already very into music (and am much more now), so I wanted to be able to understand what those marvelous and amazing songs I used to listen to meant. I was always that possible trying to “fish” words when I listened to songs in English, and actually I was able to perceive just a few words, for my vocabulary was really poor and my listening was just horrible. If I had access to the lyrics of the songs, I would try to translate them, but most of the times at that time I would simply give up after a few attempts to make sense of that alien crazy language.

And that was the first high school year. The other two were completely the same in what concerned English formal learning, in a classroom environment. What a shame, really. Those boring texts again, the very same activities. No struggling, no thinking, no improving.

Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary 2^nd edition:

Motivate 1 ENTHUSIASTIC to make someone enthusiastic about doing something

[+ to do sth] Teaching is all about motivating people to learn.

I was then surely not motivated by the teacher or the classes she gave, but I could say I was motivated by my own interest in the language.

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English at University

When I did the “vestibular” to enter UFMG , I believe that what made me get nice marks in the English tests (including the ones with writing, on the second step of the selection) was that I always did the high school translation homework. It may sound ridiculous, but I really believe that. I could say that translation homework saved my life!!!

And then I was at university. To study Letters. English. To get a Bachelor’s degree. Wow! That sounded nice to me. But then, when the classes started I was very scared. On the first 3 terms I would study Integrated Skills (1, 2 and 3) and all the other subjects were not related to English. And from the very first class of the very first Integrated Skills course no one would say a word in Portuguese. I was terrified. Some people in the class were ok, because they had studied in Cultura Inglesa or something since they were three years old (or something).

I thought about giving up. Forgetting all that stuff. I even thought “I can’t do it.” One of the girls I was starting to get to know gave up. But I am not the kind of person that gives up easily. I carried on, sometimes in true desperation, but I carried on. And now I’m here, 22 years old, 8^th term of the course, working on my Monograph and dreaming about the day when I finally go to Ireland…

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The Real Battle Begins

Well, maybe one could imagine my desperation when, on the 4^th term of the course, I took my first English Literature subject. Then I knew what it was like to be horrified!!! I struggled, I fought hard with the literary texts, I couldn’t understand them, and as I have always been a bit of a perfectionist, I would look up every single word I did not know in the dictionary. So you can guess if I did or did not manage to read everything I should for the classes… Time made me understand that this was not the best way, and I started teaching myself not to be so obsessive, and let go with weaker concern, but with the same interest I used to have in high school time with the translation homework (!). And even treat the literary texts as if they were those very same “manufactured” texts I was confronted with in high school! And that was the hardest task!!! But I made it. The only reason for what I had chosen Letters was that I loved literature. I just wanted to study it. And I was in love with literatures written in English. So many wonderful authors! And the passion I felt for those texts helped me feel confident that I could do that, and also, this passion made me want to be able to read those wonderful heavenly works of art.

I’ve been reading lots and lots of short stories in the past few years, and I think I could say this is the literary genre I like best of all.

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Literature and Rock’n’Roll: The Best Teachers

Literature helped me a lot. I learnt and am learning lots of English thanks to Literature. Including, of course, music!!! I always loved music, and by the time I started my course, I was falling in love with Led Zeppelin (see “In The Light” lyrics), Creedence Clearwater Revival (now “Revisited” – see “Sinister Purpose” lyrics), Metallica, The Doors, AC/DC, Radiohead, Tool, David Bowie, the craziest of all Iggy Pop, Leonard “The Master” Cohen (please listen to “Waiting For The Miracle” – the images are from the film “The Princess And The Warrior”), and others.

Radiohead

Enter

Jim Morrison

Robert Plant & Jimmy Page

Jim Morrison Galerie photo Led Zeppelin - Live

Jim Morrison

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Breathing English: Learning in London

On the end of July 2005 something wonderful happened to me. I went to London with mum and there we met my sister that had already been living there for some time. Mum stayed only three months, I stayed eight months. Amazing experience. I could finally experience English Language in its natural environment… in a place where I would have to either SPEAK or SPEAK. There was no choice. In the beginning I was so ashamed of my English, it was horrible.

Picadilly Circus, London.

Then one day, one guy from New Castle said to me, “You speak very good English,” and I thought he just wanted to make me less uncomfortable, but later on I sometimes heard the same comment from other people and slowly I started getting more and more confident.

Sis, I and Mum in Picadilly Circus, London

I and ballerina

near

Covent Garden, London.

Mum and I in Trafalgar Square, London.

Oxford Street (London UK)

A variety of little things made me feel more confident about my English and my capacity to improve it each and every day. Time and force of will made things easier… asking for information, buying things, reading the papers in the tube, getting to know people and everything else. I also realized that the real English, the everyday, spontaneous, friendly (or maybe not), colloquial, English was not like the English I had known until then. Of course the movies could be a good and rich source of actual language, but it was not real and authentic language anyway, and I was truly amazed by the discovery that English could be and was much more interesting and beautiful than I had ever thought. Of course, sometimes the spontaneity was somehow unlimited, and we would have very funny, and if I were shy, embarrassing situations. But everything was very enjoyable and everyone would be laughing and joking at the end. A funny piece about a very versatile English word!!!

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Working in London: The Babel Tower “Zigfrid”

Something that really helped strengthen my English was ZIGFRID, the first place where I worked in London. I really needed a job… For something like three days I was hanging around in Oxford Street and randomly getting into shops like Debenhams, HMV, H&M and many others, looking for a job. But then I went to an Internet Café and started sending my CV to employers advertising on Gum Tree, where people would look for flats to rent, offer rooms, sell and buy stuff and also look for employees.

Caixa de texto: I sent several CVs and got an interview at Zigfrid with Omar, one of the managers, who liked me and then I started working as a waitress.

waitress Omar is an American, from New York, he spoke always very fast, and I thought it was even more difficult to understand him than to understand those Londoners with their glamorous accent.

It was really, really difficult for me in the beginning, I simply could not understand what those costumers were asking me. How could I know, poor Mariana, just-arrived in London, how could I understand all those names and brands and new words people were saying, words that I had never seen before??? I often asked costumers to write down for me what they wanted. Most of them were very nice and friendly, and would laugh and please me and make jokes about my accent and other things. But some were very bad humored and would make faces at me.

Sometimes that made me desperate and I wanted to cry, but then I took a deep breath in and carried on. With time and patience I was getting acquainted and even intimate to Maker’s Mark; Sambuca; Staropramen ; Koren Wolf; Guinness; Baileys; Jameson; Tia Maria (!); Tia Lusso (!!!); Budweiser; and I was very relieved when the mysterious, obscure “Roman Coke” turned out to be only and simply “Rum and Coke.” I could even prepare it now!!!

Staropramen

Zigfrid, like London, was a crazy, scary, and especially, irresistibly beautiful and pleasant, Babel. In Zigfrid I struggled to understand and make myself understood by other staff who came from Slovakia, Poland, Italy, France, Iraq, Ecuador, America, Spain, and believe me, sometimes the most difficult to understand were the Brazilian.

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Cafe Boheme Restaurant In London

Working in Soho: Jazz, Polish Beer and Bartending

Later I changed jobs and went to work at Café Boheme, an awesome café/bar/restaurant in Soho, where I would bartend listening to great musicians playing live jazz. Wonderful experience I shared with wonderful guys, the Polish ones being the best, the warmest, the most tender. Work at Café Boheme was then interrupted suddenly by a tragedy in Brazil. With me I brought tears and a broken heart.

Café Boheme (Soho, London)

This is my little story of English Learning. Thanks to translation home works, London, passion for Literature, and music, I learnt a lot of English and I hope I can keep on learning for a long, long time.

At the present time I am working on my Monograph about Live Dubbing. In this work I’m having the pleasure to be in contact with some of my strongest passions: movies, India and Hindi culture, English, Translation, Audiovisual stuff. This is because my aim in this work is to analyze the conditions for the exhibition of a children’s Indian film with live dubbing. (TOP)

Myspace Profiles

Picture References:

Jim Morrison: http://www.casafree.com/modules/xcgal/displayimage.php?pid=6129

Radiohead: http://www.radiohead-fans.org/

Baby In Tube: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=8675200

The Best Of Bowie: http://usuarios.lycos.es/cognazo/David%20Bowie%20I.jpg

Bowie: http://www.multinet.no/~jonarne/Hjemmesia/Favorittartister/davidbowie/david_bowie_9.jpg

Robert Plant & Jimmy Page (black & white picture): http://www.postershop.co.uk/Led-Zeppelin/Led-Zeppelin-Live-3701149.html

Frightened eyes: http://orecantodocelta.zip.net/images/Medo.jpg

Oxford Street: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/75d28/4b7ec/

Café Boheme: www.london-eating.co.uk/301.htm

Debenhams: http://www.lakespropertyconsultants.co.uk/lakesproperty+carlisle+area+info.htm

HMV: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4219626.stm

Staropramen: http://www.werner.cz/portfolio/poc_airbrush/images/staropramen.jpg

Furious Customer: http://files.myopera.com/offspring/albums/22279/offspringsnare.jpg

Waitress Taking An Order: http://www.lacin.com/funnypeople.html

Gum Tree Logo: http://www.gumtree.com/

“Physical Graffiti” Cover: http://www.titanstower.com/assets/animated/episodes/revolution/references/ledzep.jpg

Logo UFMG: http://www.ufmg.br/

All Clip-arts (8 total): http://office.microsoft.com/pt-br/FX100647101046.aspx?pid=CL100569831046

Creedence: http://www.hotguitarist.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=WBP0890GTX&Category_Code=musicbooks

Jimmy Page + Robert Plant: http://www.stars2go.com/l/led-zeppelin/

David Bowie

David Bowie

E-mail me:

marianablueangel@gmail.com

Mariana Rezende Costa

Visit also: http://www.geocities.com/marianacopolla/

LED ZEPPELIN

In The Light
(Jones/Page/Plant)

And if you feel that you can't go on. And your will's sinkin' low
Just believe and you can't go wrong.
In the light you will find the road. You will find the road

Oh, did you ever believe that I could leave you, standing out in the cold
I know how it feels 'cause I have slipped through to the very depths of my soul.
I just wanna show what I'd give you it is from every bend in the road
Now listen to me
Oh, whoa-whoa, as I was and really would be for you, too, honey
As you would for me, oh, I would share your load.
Let me share your load. Ooh, let me share, share your load

And if you feel that you can't go on
In the light you will find the road

Though the winds of change may blow around you, but that will always be so
When love is pain it can devour you, if you are never alone
I would share your load. I would share your load
Baby, let me, oh, let me

In the light
Everybody needs the light.
In the light, in the light, in the light

Light, light, light, in the light
Light, light, light, in the light, ooh, yeah
Light, light, light, in the light

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