PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

We are going to talk about six years ago where everything started, until yesterday, my last day as a student of the school IES Castelló d'Empúries. During these six years of my life I have been studying English in this school with Milco, Anna and my English teacher of this year Lourdes.

The last essay Lourdes asked us to write, is our personal development in English. To begin with something, I will say that the huge difference between the first day and my last day in that school is the fluency of my English speech. How could I get a better fluency in English through the years? This question brings us to go back in time when I began school in IES Castelló d'Empuries.

Everybody started by knowing few words and trying to structure some sentences that make sense. With those kinds of basic words and sentences, no one can have a long discussion. That makes me remember how difficult it was to make oral presentations.

Things change when you do your best in each task, exams, and essays. To hit the books for each exam is not easy at all but this is the key for learning basic structures and vocabulary. Nevertheless, to learn and get a good mark and then forget it all is the wrong path. Immediately after learning new vocabulary the way to remember them is to use them. I believe that to use them is the most important.

How do I use them? I used to watch films in English with my sister during the school year when we wanted a break, I practice a lot in summer too, speaking English with tourists and the clients of my parents. Tourists make me see the evolution of my English and through the years I saw that every year I could understand more and more people that speak English. Finally, books help also. Through the years I sometimes took time to read and I could see how much easier it became to read and understand books each year.

The last thing that helped me a lot to increase my English were the extracurricular classes of English with Ceri. An English woman that gave me the chance to perfect all I had been studying and learning at school.