#2 - HISTÓRIAS REAIS "COMO EU APRENDI..." ROBERTO DE BARCELONA

Hello friends,

Há um tempo atrás, eu conheci um cara de Barcelona chamado Roberto González Fernández, através do site sharedtalk.com. Estavamos fazendo uma conversação em inglês, quando ele me contou que aprendeu inglês por conta própria. Achei incrível e fiquei muito feliz pois, me identifiquei com sua história já que eu também iniciei assim. E no desenrolar da conversa ele me apresentou o seu blog Robert Learning Process. Ele criou o blog para ajudar outras pessoas no aprendizado do espanhol e do inglês mostrando a forma como ele iniciou. Roberto também possui um canal no youtube e no ivoox chamado Robert Teaching Spanish ensinando espanhol através de podcats. Veja abaixo a história enviada por ele, mostrando como foi o seu processo para aprender a Língua Inglesa. Envie você também sua história escrita em português ou inglês. Veja como você poderá enviá-la, logo após, este grande depoimento.  See you, guys!!! 

My little story

When I was 41 years old I decided to start learning English. The reason was I always wanted to do it but I have never had the chance to learn it. My knowledge of English at that time was almost zero. I just knew a few words, practically nothing about English grammar and my pronunciation was terrible.

Nobody thought I could do it, not even people from my family. My wife has always supported me on anything but, in this case, not even she thought I could do it. Which was pretty disappointing for me. I was 41 "too old to start learning a new language". English? It is too difficult! Forget about it!

Not only that. I had a problem in my eyes called presbyopia. People normally solve that problem by using glasses but in my case it did not work. So I cannot read for more than 5 minutes without starting having a headache. Do you want to learn a foreign language and you cannot read a book? Are you crazy?

"I was too old, practically without any previous knowledge of the language and could not read for more than a few minutes..." And what for? You do not need English! You work as a security guard in Barcelona Spain. What is wrong with you? Don´t you see you cannot do it?

And what did you say? I said that I am going to learn it by myself, without a teacher. Really? Do not make me laugh! You lost it!

I started, four years ago, when I was 41 to learn English by myself. As I could not read much I focused on listening. Learning English grammar by listening to audios. I started looking for people to practise my speaking skills (in case I had any) on the internet. I found some sites to contact people and talk on Skype. But it was not very effective I spoke to around 2 or 3 people a month. It took me a year to learn about Sharedtalk, which is a voice chat where you can find people quickly to practise a language.

I have been going through many different levels. At first I just learned some words and sentences and tried to understand people speaking basic English. Then I was improving my knowledge about English grammar. I must say that focusing on listening and speaking has always been my main target. Little by little I have been honing my skills to learn English, because when you learn by yourself you not only learn a language but also learn "how to learn it".

You develop your own method to do it. Now I am focused on listening, talking on the internet and... I have realised that listening to an audio, pausing and repeating everything, imitating, really helps. It is really powerful if you do it on a daily basis, do not underestimate it. So listening, talking and imitating speaking out loud. I do not have any grammar book. I learn grammar by listening to audios and looking for information on the internet for instance on wordreference.com. To improve my writing skills I use a site called listen and write. It is very interesting.

It has been four and a half years since I started learning English. My English is not perfect yet. My level is advanced. I Speak to people in English 5 or 6 hours a week on average. I watch TV in English practically every day, without subtitles. I can understand almost everything when I watch a documentary but I cannot still catch 100% movies. Listening understanding takes a long time. We need to work hard without stopping.

I am really enjoying this experience. I have started to create audio recordings to teach Spanish to people who speak English. I like to learn but also like to teach. I have many ideas for the future concerning teaching Spanish to people who speak English and consider myself a creative person. I still have a long way to go but I am really enjoying it. All the people who thought I could not do it have changed their mind. Now they are really impressed and have changed their opinion about me.

By the way. This is my ivoox channel to teach Spanish to people who speak English

Robert Teaching Spanish

Regards from Barcelona, Spain

Roberto

Thank you, Roberto. Your story is amazing and keep up your good work! 

ENVIE SUA HISTÓRIA PARA:

pensandoemingles@hotmail.com

A história poderá ser enviada em português ou inglês.

By Teacher Rony Gleison