Post 6: English Language Challenges

Honestly, I'm a little traumatized by English. Before studying geography, I started studying translation in English and Portuguese, but I did so badly with English that I left that career without wanting to know anything about it. Now that I am studying something totally different, it is a burden for me to have to take four English courses anyway, so my experience has not been the best. However, in Fau I have had good and understanding teachers, so it has not really been that difficult or that bad.

I think the use of the blogs has been totally positive. I love blogs and I love writing, in fact I have about three personal blogs where I write about other things. So it has been encouraging to practice my English through something I like to do.

However, since I'm more used to writing, I think I'm lame with the oral part of English, since I have a hard time expressing myself orally, and I also need to sharpen my bilingual ear, but for that I basically need to practice in everyday conversations. For that I plan to travel and find myself obliged to speak English in order to communicate.

Outside of class, I use English very little, I only use it when I listen to music in English or when I watch series that I see with subtitles anyway. So in general, I only use it more when I'm in class.