Leandro’s Learning Narrative:

Leandro’s Learning Narrative:

R= 20;Learning is an eternal process of self-discovery”- a saying<= /p>

you can read my narrative listening to one of my favorite songs: Nelly Furtado̵= 7;s “All good things come to an end” http://www.nellyfurtado.com/=

&nbs= p; The first thing I can tell you about my experience learning English is that= it was not an easy process, as many people claim it is. I have always wondered= why people say that English is an easy language. To me it is not; It is quite the opposite. It might be easy to introduce yourself to someone and ask them some questions. However, mastering the language is a tough task. Few people are able to reach high levels of proficiency. If one wants to achieve such levels of proficiency, hard work and percis= tency are necessary.

&nbs= p; My first contact with the English language was at the age of 11, in elementary sc= hool. I must confess that, although many people here in Brazil say that you do not le= arn English at regular school, I did learn a lot, especially vocabulary and expressions; I remember my first English teacher very well. His name was Ne= lio and he always used U2 and Pink Floyd music in his classes. He always worked with songs and that was very motivating because music is something that most people enjoy. Most students like me were always excited about the next song= we were going to sing. At that time I began listening to a lot of songs in Eng= lish and I learned many new words. Listening to music was an enjoyable activity = to me. I learned about many other artists, and Madonna was a great o= ne I can recall. Although I learned many words and expressions in English, at the end of high school I did not have oral fluency.

&nbs= p; When I went to high school some years later, I was still interested in Engl= ish, but learning how to speak the language was a diffic= ult task. I spent the following three years = studying grammar and being trained to read texts for the coming college entrance exa= ms. I had a large vocabulary but I could not have a long conversation with someone because= I had not practiced that until then. The senior year at high school came fast= and it was time to decide what to study at college. I did not know that for sur= e, like many friends of mine. We were lost among so many choices. I only knew what I disliked: math, biology and law. I considered taking communications, h= istory or journalism. I have always enjoyed reading and studying languages (both Portuguese, my native language, and, my second language, English). I decide= d to take English at college for many reasons; I noticed that the language was already in my life. I had always loved movies, songs, reading; I had always been kind of fascinated by it.

&nbs= p; Fortunately, I passed the entrance exams and was admitted to the College of Letters to study what I had decide= d for the next four years: the English language. I was very excited about that but the first disappointment came quickly. In the first class we were told that= all English majors were recquired to be at an intermediate level. Considering my vocabulary, I was an intermediate student. However, I was not an intermediate learner when I had= to speak English. This recquir= ement was necessary in order to maintain the high quality of the course. It was impossible to keep teaching the language well = to English majors from the beginning. = I got really frightened; I was affraid they wo= uld not allow me to take the course because of my poor oral skills at that time= . I took a written text and I got a good grade. My oral text was a bit disastro= us. However, a great porfessor I had at college told me that, although my oral skills were poor, my written text showed that I knew quite a lot to be discarded. She advised me to take private clas= ses and focus on my oral skills. I did that and I hit the books and became a chatterbox at the English private school I used to attend. I tried to start thinking of senteces in English all the time. I doubled the number of movies I watched and started reading as much as I could. I have spent the l= ast four years doing that and it was worth.

&nbs= p; The breakthrough came when I started tea= ching English. I had some begginers at a private English school, and being a teacher made me study even more. I= had a great responsibility of teaching people and I c= ould not teach them wrong things. That pressure made me improve even more= . I became re= ally happy with my improvements but there was something missing: some time abroa= d to become more proficient. I had to wait a little for financial reasons: visiting a native speaking country was not eno= ugh. I wanted to live there for at least one semester, and that required more money than a four= week trip. My chance came last year, in 2005,= when I was admitted by the Uni= versity of Wisconsin to tak= e a whole semester of classes there. I got very excited and when I arrived ther= e I was sure that all my efforts were not in vain: I could communicate with peo= ple easily and could even present school work in front of the whole class. I to= ok literature classes, grammar classes, and linguistics. I learned English 24/7; even when I was hanging out with a bunch of cl= assmates I was learning. The experience I had in the States was amazing and priceles= s. Here are some pictures I took in the US:

Visi= ting New York:

Madison, Wisconsin, the place wher= e I lived:

&nbs= p; Nowadays, I am about to graduate in English. I feel that I am a lucky perso= n, but I was also persistent and had a strong will, which made me continue on. I gre= w a lot with all the experiences. The best thing is that I really love what I do: teaching English, translating from English into Portuguese and vice-versa, = and working as an interpreter every now and th= en. I am sure I am doing the right thing. English is my life, I can say that for sure. It is something I enjoy and will <= span style=3D'color:black'>continue learning for the rest of my life. You= never know everything...

Once= I heard that you get picture someone if you get to know the webpages they visit. I think it is true, so I would like you to “picture me” by visiti= ng the websites I enjoy visiting:

http://www.madonna.com/ (as you can se= e, I have enjoyed her since I started learning English...there you can find vídeos, etc...)

http://www.nytimes.com/ (I always read= the interesting news this site provides...)

http://www.bbc.com/ ( = I listen to BBC radio every single day...)

http://www.airliners.net/ (one of my hobbies: aviation...I just love flying and airplanes...I guess I will end u= p being a flight attendant...)

http://www.imdb.com/ (this site contains everything about movies, movie stars...)

http://www.eslcafe.com/ (that’s = the site I always resort to when I need to prepare a lesson and I am totally ou= t of ideas...great stuff for teachers...)

That= ’s what you needed to know abouyt my learning process, which will not finish a= ny time soon...it’s an eternal process...