'Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country'
[Theodore Roosevelt]
'There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning'
[Jiddu Krishnamurti]
I had spent almost 10 years in England; I love the
country, culture and traditions here and I really want to speak ENGLISH.
I was trying so hard. I was studying every day, and I was
speaking it every chance I got; in the supermarket, at parties with friend and strangers
I met, but I still couldn’t actually speak English.
I am struggling with repeating the same words and phrases
over and over.
Surely after 10 years I should have been speaking much
better than I already am?
I couldn’t properly express myself. I would say how
English is just too hard for me. Other foreigners were also having the same
problem, and yet a few others were so easily picking up the language with apparently
little work. Maybe I am just not the kind of people who will ever pick up
languages quickly…
I couldn’t conjugate any past-future-tense verbs, my
vocabulary are pathetic and my pronunciation are extremely not understandable.
I use the few words I knew to explain around what I want
to say, and of course I use a lot of hand waving and gestures until someone got
what I trying to say.
Frankly, it is horrible. I couldn’t ask for simple items,
I couldn’t have a discussion about anything important, so I am as good as a 5
year old for conversations and actually worse and I couldn’t share my feelings.
At the end of the day I come home so tired and frustrated. Anyone learning a
language in the country knows what this feels like. There was many times when I
just considered abandoning the hope to speak English and be able to express
myself properly, but I don’t give in.
