Lost in translation found in determination

In my life, there have been and will always be lots of obstacles. Some of them pushed me in the right direction, and some didn’t. But there was one problem- a problem that gave me the opportunity to travel, communicate and study around the world. That made my learning much harder – the language barrier.

However, when I first started my language journey, I didn’t expect that it would be so much fun and difficult at the same time. In the first few months, I learned English as an average student in my country: simple grammar, easy texts and a little bit of speaking. I even thought that my English level was high enough to go to school with native speakers. I was thrilled every time I was reading in English and could understand some words. I was over the moon to start communicating with native speakers, but this euphoria vanished into thin air as soon as my foot touched the school ground.

Everything was new: new country, new school, new people. Should I continue counting how many new things and feelings I had that day?
The loud noise of people talking came into my ears. Pupils spoke so fast that I couldn’t even understand a word. When teachers asked me questions, I knew all the answers, but couldn’t even pronounce them. Nonetheless, this feeling was ephemeral. I put all my effort into learning the language. Every time I heard new words at school, I did my best to understand and use them in my speech.

The key moment was when I started attending EAL lessons. Those lessons were different from others because we didn't just learn grammar and exercises from a book; we learned how to use language in real life. That support and guidance made me confident. At that time, I understood that I was not only learning the language, but I was owning it. After that, I stopped taking pictures of texts and translating them. Moreover, because of everyday practice, the loud noise of people talking in the corridors slowly started to make sense, and I could easily answer all the questions in the lesson.

As a consequence of these challenges, I became one step closer to my dreams. Now I am able to speak, write and understand without struggling. Because of marvellous support, my closest friend’s help and determination, I overcame this problem. Nevertheless, I am not stopping; I am still discovering new words to learn. In any case, I am now sure that I will always be ready to fight all the language problems.

Written by:

Safina N.