Mon expérience en anglais (document en anglais)

My English learning experiences compare with those of Julia Alvarez

Languages seem to refer to a distinct ability of human beings, thus from a side of activity of the mind which form and combines ideas, construct arguments. On the other side the ability to articulate words, pronounce the sounds or words of a language that would in turn function to express the thoughts or feelings. Although Ivory Coast is a French speaking country, Ivoirians have great interest in learning different languages. What excitement it was for us to quickly complete elementary School and get admitted to middle school; stage where all student start to learn basic English. Those best explain my experiences while learning English as a second language compared to the article I read, “My English “by Julia Alvarez. The writer narrates her experience of how she had to cope with both learning Spanish and English. Alvarez’s experiences are very similar to mine as we both started learning English from a bilingual home, proceed learning it in school and travel to the United State to improve our studies. I have been fortunate to have good teachers while learning English and I wasn’t astonished when I traveled to the United State unlike Alvarez.

Back in my country, my family and I used to be a bilingual home because my father had the opportunity to study in the united State, where he was fortunate to polish his verbal communication. I perfectly comprehend Alvarez view when she says, “why my parents didn’t educate us in our native language” (32). Growing up as a kid with different language at side from the national one was a bit challenging during elementary school. It was difficult for me to establish the difference between French and English; I was confronted of speaking French at school and speaking English when I am home, I wasn’t an easy task for me to know when and to whom have to speak English or not.

Similarities in my experiences with those of Alvarez can be well seen during my middle school. Stage where I started learning English as a subject akin to the way we learn Mathematics, sciences, history, and etc. I started enjoying and learning good English as emphasized by Alvarez “I began to learn more English, at the Carol Morgan School” (31). Unlike the Author, my English teacher was a very kind man; he was the one who developed my interest in learning the language. While most of my friends where finding it difficult to learn, I was scoring very high grades although our syllabus was very light compared to an English speaking country. That reminds me of this funny turn of phrase my friend said when our teacher asked us to present ourselves. When it got the turn of my friend, he answered by saying “je” call “moi” Henry. His answer was a combination of both languages. It was fun learning English during middle and high school. I so much wanted to be great in it that I asked my parent to send me study in any English speaking country. I then had passion of becoming an English teacher in my country. Everything went on smoothly until when I travelled to a neighboring English country, where I had to realize that learning was not as easy we were being taught back in school.

I contrast my experience in Ghana with those of the writer when she says “a country where everyone speaks English! These people must be smarter, I thought” (33). That was exactly the same feelings I had when I got to Ghana, I was so impressed to see both children and elderly people speaking this language everywhere in the street compare to my country where we only learn the basic at school.

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