2 - From Britney to Blueprints: My English Story

You’ll always hear me talk about “English journey”. And you probably wonder why I use this specific term so often. And, of course, there’s a reason.

A journey is when you go from one place to another, but you don’t necessarily return to the starting point. Journey represents a process, continuous process. It doesn’t end.

And it’s a beautiful clear picture of what learning a language is. Well, learning in general. Because you’re always learning things, if you’re receptive to it. Even in your mother tongue, you still don’t know absolutely everything. 

So, let’s cut to the chase. After this brief introduction, I want to honor the request I made last week. 

On the first episode, which I launched last week, I told you to let me know if you wanted me to introduce myself and talk about my English journey on the second episode. 

Two people told me “yeah Ana go ahead and share about you”. And that’s what I’ll do today. 

My love for English started when I was a child. I fell in love with the song “Lucky” by Britney Spears. I learned it by heart. 

I didn’t study in a bilingual school. In my school, we had a 40-minute English class every day. The bilingual schools in Honduras have maybe the 80% of classes in English: P.E. spelling, science. Even recess is in English! You’re forced to speak in English. These students are more exposed to communicating in English than I was at that time. 

And I love my school, but I always felt that was the only negative aspect of it. I wanted to talk with my friends in English like the bilingual school kids. 

When I was in 5th grade, my family from the US came to visit. My father’s sisters moved to the US when they were young, and my dad was the only one that stayed in Honduras. So, my 2 aunts came, and I met my 4 cousins. They spoke Spanish a bit, but between them, of course they spoke in English, and I remember thinking like “I wish I could speak like them” 

And I call this my first international experience. Because even though I didn’t go out of the country, I was part of this English environment. I think that I didn’t even go to school for a few days, just to spend time with my family. And this experience light up something inside me. I loved how English sounded and I think that I promised to myself "I’ll speak like that one day."

Time passed. I kept taking my English classes in high school. I try not to judge the way we were taught, but I guess you lived something similar: these grammar-based classes with no speaking opportunities. 

Then I entered uni, and on my second year, I came across a very interesting opportunity: I found an NGO that needed translator volunteers. Foreigners from the US and Canada came to Honduras to build schools and playgrounds in rural areas. Most of them didn’t speak Spanish, so the organization needed volunteers to help them communicate with the people from the small towns.

It caught my attention - meeting people from other countries, traveling to small towns, building schools. It sounded the perfect plan for a 20-year-old.

So, I applied. There was the voice inside: “Who do you think you are? Your English is not good enough”

I did it anyway. I had an interview in English. 

If you think about the facts, I wasn’t ready: I thought I knew just basic English. I knew  a lot of songs in English, I could understand TV shows - I loved the OC - but speaking spontaneously? I didn’t have enough experience. 

During the interview, I felt I needed to express that I doubted my English. 

The woman told me: “Ana, your English is just fine. You’ll survive. Are you in?”

I guess they didn’t have a lot of people wanting to be volunteers. 

But I said: “Yeah, I’m in”. I was so scared. 

Just tell me: Did you ever take an English lesson at school about building vocabulary? Construction tools? Blueprints? Because I never had a lesson about that. 

Yeah, I went to the volunteer trip without knowing how to say “pala” in English. I had no idea. 

But guess what? I survived. 

And this experience, what I call my second international experience, skyrocketed my fluency, and my mindset. It made me feel I could speak English. For real. the way I wanted to when I was 10 years old. 

And why did that happen? 

Because I was forced to survive in English. I had to ACTIVATE the English I already knew but hardly ever used. I had to accept that I was going to make mistakes. I learned how to survive them. 

I learned how to ask what was the right word for something.

I learned how to explain things when I didn’t find the exact word that I wanted to use.

And “pala” in English is “shovel” I discovered it when I saw one on the floor and I was with an American volunteer, and I just hold it and asked him: “What’s the word for this?" and he kindly told me the word. 

This was the turning point in my English journey. I was young and bold, and even thought I was scared, fear wasn’t bigger than the desire for doing something different and exciting. I had the time and the energy to do it. 

And, of course, after this, my english wasn’t perfect. I had a lot of room for improvement. But, it made me feel capable. I found meaning to all of these years taking English classes regularly. 

And feeling capable put me on the right track. 

After this, I dare to enroll in a Master’s Degree, fully in English. And the beginning was hard. Academic English was something I never experienced before, but my mind was set on “I can do it.”

And yeah my English journey is longer, it continues nowadays, there had been more decisive moments in it, but I wanted to share the beginning of my path. These two experiences that spark my love for English and helped me discover my purpose: 

To help other English learners communicate in English. Connect with other people. Dare to do different things - with fear and everything. 

And if you see, there was nothing extreme like moving to an English speaking country, or something like that. I think it was just how I seize the opportunities in life.

Your English journey might be similar to mine, or completely different. But today, I invite you to see yourself, as an English learner, with compassion. to look at this journey, your experiences with English from an empowering perspective. 

What experiences in English have made you feel capable? 

What’s something you’ve accomplished in English? whether it’s just ordering some coffee, or giving directions to someone on the street. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. But one time you felt capable. - like when I sang the Britney Spears song in front of my cousin - This time when you felt like “yeah, I speak English”

because that’s the feeling you need to hold on to.