Me and English

When I was thinking about my English experience I realised that I have been studying English for 12 years now! I was really surprised and I have to say that it is quite sad that my knowledge of English isn't at a higher level now.

Well, my first contact with English dates from a nursery school. I remember that I had a very good teacher and we learnt how to express colours, family or parts of our body in English. At that time learning English was amusing and our teacher always thought up a new entertaining game for us. 

Then I met English at a primary school. We had a lot of different teachers and learning English became more difficult but still we played some games and especially at first school it was still fun. After few years we started to learn tenses and more complex vocabulary so we could express more thoughts in English.

Then I studied at a grammar school. English became much difficult and teacher’s primary goal was to prepare us for maturity exams so we started to practise reading, listening and speaking skills. However, there were almost 30 students in our class so I had only few chances to speak. Moreover, other schoolmates didn’t keep attention and made a lot of noise so I could never hear the listening exercises. It partly caused my current problems with listening and speaking skills. 

After I successfully graduated I started to prepare for entrance exams to the University of Pardubice where I wanted to study English for business. It was difficult and when I finished the test I was sure that I won’t be admitted. However, later that month I celebrated my admission to the University. 

And now I’m studying at this university second year and it’s really difficult for me, but I like it because it is one huge challenge and I have good friends here. And that’s my English history.

I always liked English. It is very melodic language and I was happy when I realised that I understand to songs or some English phrases from films. It made me feel special because not everyone can do this.  Moreover, I like traveling so I need to be able to communicate with foreigners. I love Britain as well because it is gorgeous country full of historical sights, new modern monuments and beautiful landscapes. I really want to spend some time in Britain.

However, as I said previously I have certain problems with listening skills. I understand to people who speak English but I don’t understand to records from radio during the lessons. Moreover, I am a quite shy person so I am afraid of speaking before people. When I am alone I speak quite well, but when I speak during to another person I’m not able to express what I want to say… And I usually realise that I can’t express my thoughts because I don’t know an English word or phrase – it annoys me a lot.

I am trying to improve my skills and I am sure that they are slowly improving, but still it is not enough.