Because Of

I have a dream, I hope someday my daughter will study abroad. So I want to be her model in learning English. Soon an idea popped into my head. Why not learn from an English teacher on Amazing Talker?

I will never forget how nervous I was during my first class with Serena.
After I introduced myself, I told Serena my purpose for learning English. Serena gave me an entire English book, “Because of Winn-Dixie”, and asked me to read it. I had never read any English story before. It was a challenge for me to read the English book. I was used to using google translate, but I still tried to do my best. When I read the story, my mind went blank. After finishing two pages, Serena asked me some questions about the girl in the story. I felt embarrassed because when I read, I only read the words without understanding the story. I just told Serena that I was sorry because I was too nervous to understand the story. And Serena kindly and patiently led me to read the paragraph again. This time I tried to understand the meaning of the story.

At first, my husband didn’t agree with my spending money to read a book with an English teacher. He thought I could read a book by myself without an English teacher. But it was really hard for me to open an English novel for the first time.
My dear Serena showed me how to understand the analogy in the story, for example, in the story when the preacher faced a situation he didn’t like, he would hide in his shell. When I first read this sentence, I felt confused about the meaning. Sometimes when you are reading, you know every single word in the sentence but you do not know what the sentence wants to tell you. If at this moment, there is someone who can lead you to learn how to read an article, it is really helpful. You will be less depressed and have more motivation in learning English. Also, if there is something that I don’t understand, Serena will notice it by my wrong pronunciation. (What an attentive teacher you are.)

After my second class with Serena, I decided to work harder. I decided to read the chapter before class and spend more time reviewing the story. But I am a full-time mother and I study Korean at the same time. What can I do if I just have 24 hours a day? The solution that I thought of was to use my fragmented time. Mid-autumn holidays, family dinners, wherever I went I always carried my book. Reviewing the book beforehand really helped with my studies. Soon what I wished for happened to my daughter, she became to like to learn English. One night when we finished our bedtime story she told me, “Mommy, I love to read English books with you right now even though I didn’t like it before.” (Oh, my dear daughter, do you know your words are like music to my ears? It touched my soul.)

Week by week, 4 months passed, I finally finished my first English novel ever.
Because of Winn-Dixie, I started to read English books without using the Dictionary.
Because of Winn-Dixie, my daughter started to enjoy our bedtime stories.
Because of Winn-Dixie, I am no longer afraid of English.

Thank you, my dear Serena, because of you I started to use English in my everyday life.