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decreaseI know it’s not easy to start doing anything if you don’t have enough passion, but it is my future so I need to do it. My life starts here with my family and if my English is poor, I cannot achieve my goal.
My husband has encouraged me to study, we work as a team, we got a lot of information and we found the best place to start is the local college. I went there for an enrolment test, but it was not easy to make the decision of which course was a suitable for me. We walked to the last booth which was the English GCSE course. An officer there gave me lots of useful information, which helped me to choose the IELT course (International English Language Testing System).
I needed to take the assessment test, my husband told me don’t worry too much. I told myself I have learned English in Thailand for more than 10 years, I should try and get the best result from the test. And that’s it; I got the Intermediate Upper Advance level 2. I was very proud of myself; I was waiting for the first day to start college.
The first day of class, I was excited with everything. I didn’t know which classroom I needed to go in, and then I went into the wrong classroom which was the level below, level 1. But I didn’t mind, because I made five new friends in that room in just fifteen minutes. Then the teacher told me I was in the wrong class and she showed me the correct one.
When I walked in to the room, I just had a quick look at the people in the room; they were from different continents; Asia, Europe and Africa. The teacher was a very kind person and that made me feel very comfortable.
Just in the first lesson, I knew that it was not easy, but it was not too hard to learn and everybody in the class had the same feeling. We got homework every lesson, both easy and hard; the hardest part for me was the writing. After the teacher checked my homework I was very proud of myself, I could do it and I got a good mark.
The International Student Department encourages the students to learn outside college also, they arranged trips to York, Cambridge and many other places around the UK but I couldn’t remember them all.
It was not just only learning about communication, you also learned about social and cultural differences. In the class during break time I was talking and listening with friends, some students had come to the UK for life experience and intend to go back to their countries when they have completed their course, but for me my goal is to continue studying here, and hopefully one day to become a qualified interpreter.
For my college experience, I enjoyed very much, I think having the education and learning language is not just in class, or just in the book . . . you can learn in everything in your life experience, everyday, whatever you do. You can learn on the bus, watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines, listening to radio, going to the cinema, learning language is everywhere. . . even telling this story.
© Jariya. All rights reserved by the author.
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