From my early childhood, I was so fascinated by the English language. I grew up hearing and reading stories from authors like Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and more. My mother taught me how to read at a very young age and I took pride in being able to communicate with my parents in English. In fact, she had taught me some basic rules of grammar. When I went to school for the first time, they thought that because I spoke English fluently that I was an excellent student.
It’s easy to get bogged down by the idea of learning a new language. And sometimes, it is difficult to understand why anyone would even want to learn a new language. But at some point in your life, you will have an interest in becoming proficient in another language.
A few years ago, I decided to move to England. It was a bold decision and had I known then what I know now, I might have chosen differently.
I am an English teacher, but I don’t consider myself a native speaker. Why? Because when I’m speaking English in front of people, I can’t be certain that my accent and vocabulary are perfect. Here is my story on how I learnt English. See also, learn English.
About my English language journey
1. I studied abroad in England while attending university
I chose to study abroad out of my familiarity with English and how useful it is, both personally and professionally. Studying overseas makes you appreciate the benefits that being fluent in another language can give me on a day-to-day basis (in addition to improving your multilingual prowess). While living outside my home country allows me to compare myself only amongst individuals who use the same language, this also makes me feel like I have an advantage over people who speak English with a regional accent, since they are not being compared to individuals worldwide. My experience studying abroad in England has taught me that learning and understanding another language can be challenging but also incredibly fun and rewarding at the same time; it isn’t too long ago that my opinion on this subject was different when living in Quebec.
2. Study friends came from overseas – or moved back to Canada from the UK
I couldn’t believe it when I learned that some of my studying friends and even their grandparents had relocated to England because they wanted to improve English speaking skills. One friend in particular decided he hated his native tongue so much, but moved back after three years at least a couple of times during university thus becoming fluent enough in English for him (to include being able to hold polite conversations without any fear or hesitation). On top of that, he was having a blast in England as well!
3. Suggested by teachers, friends or family members
A teacher once suggested me to learn from an online video series and then afterwards recommended my study material (LingvoSoft English Plus), so this is how I learnt the most basics – with books. My brother always wanted to go back to Scotland where his wife comes from – it’s always difficult for him and my mother to hear him speaking Scottish English – so he made them believe that learning his language and then moving was the right choice!
4. Go back to school (or stay at home) for a few days before starting university for more studying benefits
I finished high school in Quebec, proceeded with studies until I graduated from college but this only granted me half an hour of lectures per week… This year, due to lack of resources in my high school, I was bored to death and decided that it wasn’t worth finishing in Quebec anymore; so instead of going back to college, I started university but still left Quebec earlier than planned because the program had relocated.
5. No students wanted companies while looking for a job (business or contract) – 2009-2012
All the companies audited by LingvoSoft find around 8% of them would hire an employee knowing one language. This was an opportunity for me to get some work that wouldn’t be limited by the company’s budget… But, I didn’t know a name of person who would hire me. More than once I thought about staying home for 3 months in December but barely any companies had cheap contracts available at it and none of them were willing to pay 16 dollars (the money needed for a bus ride each day).
My LingvoSoft training helped me develop my English so that a recruiter decided to sponsor me (determined by Google search of the company name and app) – in Ottawa.
6. Get an internship or contract job before going back to university!
My wish was granted because I learned about LingvoSoft after graduating from college…After much research for companies called “LingvoSoft”, we found out one can be contacted by telephone, email or writing a letter.
– In July 2014, I managed to win an internship at Unicon Research. The company’s job required me to communicate in English with personnel from other offices in the country and abroad for a duration of 18 months (5 days/weeks per month). With this contract, it was less about earning but learning more about different situations you can find during the workday: (debugging web applications) or opening your own business.
All in all, the job gave me a chance to be in contact with people from all over the world, I learned how to write business letters and the language of contracts.
– In September 2014, I managed to get a contract job at a company called Envysys (in Ontario). It was a short term contract of 2 months but I was paid 16 dollars per hour. The job required me to work on translating into English a website that was written in German and make several SEO optimisations along the way. Not as much to do with English but it refreshed my mind on advanced technologies because I had never translated software before (even though Google translate both automatic translations and writing sentences that don’t sound like they belong together in a computer language).
– In October 2014, I finally started working at LingvoSoft.