I remember I had a few classes of English in elementary school, but it
wasn’t until fifth grade when I had a real class of English. I a teacher I
really hated on fifth grade, but happily she left the school that year and then
we met Miss Claudia, she was my teacher since sixth grade to senior year in
high school so everything I know about English I have to thanks her for
teaching me. She was a sweetie and even when in sixth, seventh and eighth grade
every year we started learning about the verb “to be” I really love her
classes. I had to admit that I love English so I was a very good student, but
my class mates didn’t pay much attention and some of them went out of high
school with cero knowledge about English. Even know they have problems with
English in their universities.
I truly thinks that isn’t the teacher’s fault that the students doesn’t
want to learn English, I mean I didn’t take a course of English in an academy
or something, I just enjoyed translating songs, watching movies and tv series,
hearing English a lot so then I could put
in practice everything I learn in class. That was all and I ended up with the
same level of English that some of my friends –who actually toke English classes
outside high school– have. If you want to learn, you are going to learn, but
students right now don’t appreciate their teachers or their classes. I see that
in my brother he also has classes with Miss Claudia and he knows nothing about
English, I have try to teach him thousands of times and he doesn’t learn. So
when the students in Chile really want to learn English, just because they want
and not because “they have to”, everything would be different.
The most difficult thing for me it’s to memorize the irregular verbs and
their conjugations. But it’s just practice, I also have to pronounce my “v” and
“b” ‘cause you know you have to open your mouth and use your tongue differently
for that sounds. I think this year I
have improved my pronunciation, ‘cause that was my weakness point in high
school. About my writing, well, now I just write everything without thinking “how
I have to write this word?” all the time, and it’s really fun because to write
in English you have to think in English. I think that’s my secret, sometime I
like to think in English so I just keep practicing with my imagination.
