Nome: Danilo Cristófaro
Idade: 37
Escolaridade: superior incompleto - Letras
Tempo de aprendizagem: 20 anos
I suppose, just like most of us, I will not consider my English lessons in school as an experience worth mentioning. Things may well have changed since my old schooling days but, we all know that we often come out of mainstream education knowing as much as we knew when we got in: Zilch!
So, for the record, my first “real” contact with English in a classroom environment was at Number One Language School. That was back in the late 80’s. I have to admit that, as first steps into the world of the English language, their methodology brought me good results. In less than one year I had a fairly basic-but-decent knowledge of Present Simple, Past Simple and other tenses. Adding to that, my vocabulary was far from being vast but I tried to use it and also to learn new words.
The method employed at Number One was the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). It has its roots in the behaviourist ideas of the audio-lingual methodology but it seems to offer more contextualised situations presented to students, therefore, making the drills more meaningful than a straight down-the-throat substitution drill.
After lessons, I used to walk home for I had no money for the bus fare. It was a long walk from Belo Horizonte’s Getúlio Vargas to my place. In order to make use of the time I had, while I was walking home I would create situations similar to the lesson that I had just attended to. I think it worked wonders for me as the practice of new structures and vocabulary is fundamental to the bedding down of language in our minds.
After one year of Number One lessons I went to Europe. The reason why I decided to go there is still a mistery for me. Perhaps, it lies in the spirit of seeing the world or just for financial reasons. The fact is that I packed my bags and went to England. For me it was a great experience to realise that what I had learned in class was actually real: I would say the words and get a response. Simple and fascinating as it is I was able to gather: I communicate, therefore, I exist!
After three months in London I went to the Middle East. It was in Israel and Egypt that I had the chance to really break the barrier of being able to speak a second language for long periods of time without getting extremely tired. I had no chance to speak Portuguese for months. I had to speak, write, listen and read everything in English. There was a stage that I had to rack my brains to get going but then, suddenly, it all became a lot easier.
After the Middle East I returned to London. I was able to communicate without difficulty but I found I needed to improve my skills. It was my understanding that the best way to do it was to go to school and study the language further. I studied at Westminster College, in London’s Vincent Square, for a few months. The method used was supposed to be the Communicative approach but it was in fact a mixture of alternatives to PPP, Humanistic and Communicative approaches. I was learning English at a very fast pace. The difference was obvious. What I learned in the morning was put into practice during the rest of the day. I suppose I was learning English as a second language rather than as a foreign language. Still, classroom activities, such as writing, played a vital role in my learning because these were simply not required in my day to day life. School was important because I would be talking (and learning) about things that I would not come across in normal circumstances. One thing is to live abroad and to assume you will learn the language. The other thing is to realise that there are different levels you can reach and you are the one who determines which level you want to get to.
For me it is hard to go on and talk about the methods and courses I have attended due to my own personal experience. What I can say, without a shadow of doubt, is that I have been in this business of learning English for many years now. I have lived most of my adult life in abroad. I have lived many experiences in English. From farming in the Israeli desert to popping into my local bike shop to buy new brake pads and sprockets. From phoning the local council about the lack of reliability on the refuse collection services to ordering a pint of bitter at a John O’Groats pub. I have lived the language and what I see is that the further you go, the longer the path.
After coming to UFMG, last year, I started doing my graduation in English. I realise I have learned so much in just over twelve months that I have been here. That makes me acknowledge that the experience never ceases.
I have already talked about my days at Number One and at Westminster College in London. I prepared myself to the First Certificate in English and The Proficiency Exams. I find it hard to comment further on the methodology employed during my learning experience because most of it happened in English speaking countries making the learning well beyond the methodology and classroom environment. Possibly, there is no bigger “communicative approach” than that. The problem is that it goes away from the very subject of this task just as much as it talks about it. Ambiguous as it may be that is how I perceive it..
To talk about functional, sociolinguistic, interactional and cultural competence within the circumstances I have had my learning experience is as obvious as it is contradictory. I hope the reader will forgive me for my slight deviation of the subject but in my case it all happened naturally. For most of us, learning a language in Brazil is a very difficult thing because we live in a such continental country. On top of that, we do not have many chances to talk to foreigners, let alone go abroad.
My conclusion is that we should, as learners, enjoy every and each step of the way. There is no ending to this one. We will never be able to know everything and become absolute masters of the language. It is a futile attempt. Not even natives do that. By doing this, humbly, we should enjoy every new word we learn. Every new expression. Every step of the way.