Learning English...again (My first text) Hi there: It's hard to say that you lived in the U.S. and still are trying to learn English. That was a while ago, when I was sixteen. I left Madrid to spen

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Learning English...again (My first text) Hi there: It's hard to say that you lived in the U.S. and still are trying to learn English. That was a while ago, when I was sixteen. I left Madrid to spend a whole academic year in California. There I went to the Saint Francis High School. As I came from a different educational system I had to go to sophomore, junior and senior classes to convalidate my academic degree here in Spain. I still remember what a surprise it was to hear a student stop reading a literary text and ask the teacher how it was pronounced a word...how was that possible? what a strange language English was that a native student didn't know how to say a word!. That year in California was very important for me. I got a good level of English but times passed by and I didn't try to keep or improve my English level so I started losing vocabulary, expressions... When I got here internet wasn't still popular, you couldn't watch tv in english yet and I was too lazy to speak in English with my siblings that spent also one year in the U.S. before I did. One day I realized that I could no longer talk in English fluently: I was in the underground when an Indian family aproach to me and ask for a tourist bus that drives you to the most popular places in Madrid. That bus is convertible, actually it didn't had a top at all allthough it has two floors but normally everybody wants to sit upstairs and enjoy taking pictures and having a nice sunbath...but that day wasn't the typical day, it was rainy and a bit cold. I try to make a joke about the bus and the weather but I couldn't then I just said to myself " stick to say where they can get that bus from" but the words didn't come out of my mouth. Oh my god! It took my a long time to say just a few words. I was ashamed how could I speak so bad? Since then I have tried several times to keep my level of English but never regularly. Now, and once again I have started to study and look forward to get an official qualification in English.

Oct 16, 2014 6:48 AM

Corrections · 2

Learning English...again (My first text)

Hi there:

It's hard to say that you lived in the U.S. and still are trying to learn English. That was a while ago, when I was sixteen. I left Madrid to spend a whole academic year in California. There I went to the Saint Francis High School. As I came from a different educational system I had to go to sophomore, junior and senior classes to convalidate (I have never heard the word convalidate. I think you should use "validate" or "confirm") my academic degree here in Spain.
I still remember what a surprise it was to hear a student stop reading a literary text and ask the teacher how to pronounce a word...how was that possible? what a strange language English was that a native student didn't know how to say a word!.
That year in California was very important for me. I got (I would say "achieved" "improved to" or "learned") a good level of English but time passed by and I didn't try to keep or improve my English level so I started losing vocabulary, expressions... When I got here internet still wasn't popular, you couldn't watch tv in english yet and I was too lazy to speak in English with my siblings that also spent also one year in the U.S. before I did.
One day I realized that I could no longer talk in English fluently: I was in the underground (We would usually say subway) when an Indian family approached me and asked for a tourist bus that drives you to the most popular places in Madrid. That bus is convertible, actually it didn't had a top at all allthough it has two floors but normally everybody wants to sit upstairs and enjoy taking pictures and having a nice sunbath...but that day wasn't the typical day, it was rainy and a bit cold. I tried to make a joke about the bus and the weather but I couldn't, then I just said to myself " stick to saying where they can get that bus from" but the words didn't come out of my mouth. Oh my god! It took me a long time to say just a few words. I was ashamed. How could I speak so bad (bad is common, correct grammar is "badly" or "poorly")?
Since then I have tried several times to keep my level of English, but never regularly. Now, and once again I have started to study and look forward to get an official qualification in English.