English and Me

When I first came to America as a student, it’s a nightmare. I had a hard time understanding what people said. When I watched TV, I caught only the first and the last word of a sentence. The rest of the sentence…who knew where it went. When I went to a movie, I laughed when people laughed because I didn’t want to look stupid but I had NO IDEA what they laughed about. That’s stupid..hahaha!

My situation was so bad that I told myself I had to do something to change it; otherwise, I would not survive and would not graduate. My action plan was to isolate myself from my friends so that I didn’t speak my language (Thai) all the time. I moved out from a dorm, rented an apartment and bought a BIG TV. That was a big investment for a college student :). I started watching TV with closed captioning on continually. I wrote down a new word I learned from a TV show and practiced using it whenever I could. I attended special classes to correct my pronunciation. I tried to speak, read, think and breathe in English (the last one was very difficult to do ;) ). After a few months or so, I started seeing my progress. I couldn’t believe myself when I was able to understand every single word a lady on the news said. Also, people could understand what I tried to say. That’s EXCITING! And the most important thing was I dreamed in English. That was a big accomplishment to me!

I was very happy that I was on the right track. I kept learning and making progress on my English. As a result, I graduated. I was very proud of myself for working hard and got over a big hump. Afterward, I have been able to use my knowledge and experience helping other people to improve their English. It’s really a great feeling! English and I, we I finally made peace!

Learning English is a life long learning. It’s something I like and continue doing. I like to make it fun. When I learn something new, I feel I couldn’t keep it to myself. I would like to share it with the world! That's why I start writing this blog. I hope what I share will be somewhat useful to my readers.