English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
Explore my obstacles and their resolutions in learning English!
Me, my teachers, and my family
The teacher who read me a poem in English-Russian in kindergarten is also an important character
The poem in Russian-English
EFL: from early childhood to present day
Main theme of my Literacy Narrative is English as a foreign language. I first heard and saw English in preschool class when I was 5 years old. But the first English lessons started in high school. I had a bad experience with this. I started studying English intensively only after I moved to the United States for about two years. My study of English continues to this day.
EFL in Belarus and the United States
The main events take place in three cities. I saw English first in Mogilev, Belarus, where I was born and grew up. Then I tried to learn English on my own in Minsk, Belarus. I moved to New York, USA, where English became a necessity for me.
These cities are marked on the map below. You can click on the pins to see photos of the cities and follow the links to Wikipedia, clicking on the photo, and read about them.
Settings
Frustration learning English
When I was a child I desired to know more about English, but later circumstances made the process of learning English very difficult. More information about this is shown in the next chapter.
Important English-learning moments
Never give up
I had many obstacles in learning English in Belarus. This is described in the "Main events" chapter above.
Belarus
Learning English became interesting for me again and makes me feel more comfortable living in the U.S. because I began to understand a new language. Learning English has also become a necessity for me because I want to get a good job in the U.S.: I need to communicate with my daughter's teachers and with doctors. From the moment I moved to the U.S., I hardly spoke any English. I constantly asked my husband to speak to someone instead of me in English. This began to annoy me, however, because my husband would sometimes ask my questions in a way that I might not have asked them myself. Then I would often get answers I wasn’t expecting. Because of such situations, I found the motivation to learn English.
United States of America
Learning any language is complex and takes time to learn its nuances and irregularities. I want to learn how best to improve my English in the future because I believe it is never too late to learn.
