How I Battle with English

Learning different phrases from different languages is always a fun thing for me. Among all other languages, I choose English as my primary second language. I see myself struggling and making progress along the way. To this day, I’m still working on English speaking, reading and writing. I find it interesting to share with everyone how I have battled with the language of English.

During my years in elementary school, I began learning English. The academic material was from Oxford English, and we had to memorize vocabulary and certain conversations. Everything was about memorization. I definitely did not learn much. It wasn’t until I went to middle school, an international school, that I truly began a real English learning process. Everyone spoke in English, and we have a diverse community where people are from all over the world. This was the first time I figured out that there are different accents in speaking English. I was learning the British expression back in elementary school. Now, it’s on my own figuring out the English style I want to stick with, and I choose American English.

Because everything at school was in English, I had difficulties understanding daily conversation and academic material. The first two months of middle school, I was crying and asking my mom to quit school. When classmates, teachers and staff asked me questions, I usually did not understand and I felt embarrassed. I mostly responded, “ I don’t know.” In class, if people laugh, I might follow them to laugh without knowing what was going on. It was a miserable time. However, I learned most of my English from this experience. Because I was forced into an environment where people all speak English and use English, I forced myself to use English and get to know English.  I learned English fast, and I made lots of progress speaking with people. It would take me a while to phrase a sentence in my head, and I would slowly speak out loud. By the time I speak, there is always a time lag. Sometimes I just spill out a few words to participate because saying an entire sentence was a struggle for me. I would struggle to type English words with the keyboard as I had a hard time finding where to hit the keyboard. Luckily, I had great teachers and friends who were willing to help me and be patient with my poor English skills. The three years at the international school opened another whole new world for me, and my English improved so much from it.

As I came to the states for high school, it was another new learning experience. Because everyone here is American, I was exposed to more American slang and culture. I learned a lot from daily conversations, and I often learn new words through conversations. I often have confused myself with “smashed potatoes'' and mashed potatoes. I definitely know what potatoes are called, but I do not know specific dish names related to potatoes. It makes sense to say smashed potatoes because potatoes are smashed. Hahahaha! My native friends continuously correct my English pronunciation. For instance, the whole time I thought the fast-food restaurant is called “po-pe-yes.'' Before I got to know who pope is, I thought it was a random name of “po-pe.” After I learned about the pope, I thought the restaurant was talking about how the Pope says yes. However, my friend laughed the hell out of me when I pronounced it. I finally got to know that it is pronounced as “pop eyes.'' I have many other similar funny stories battling with the pronunciation of English words. I continue to surprise my friends and learn new words to this day, and I enjoy finding out more. 

Now, I can think and speak in English at the same time while having fewer and fewer issues of the time lag. Although I still need to learn a lot more in English, I’m very proud of my current achievement.