The journey to becoming bilingual is, for some, an easy road, that can begin at birth. For others of us, however, the road can be long and difficult, but completely worth it!

In my case, I received English classes, (although they only taught us basic things) from the time I was in elementary school until I graduated from High School. So, I spent many years of my life in contact with the language.

In elementary school, English was never my favorite subject. I am one of those who thinks that your mentality, attitude and social circle greatly influence you for EVERYTHING and in my mind I had already decided that learning English was VERY difficult, my attitude in the classes was not very helpful (especially because of of my  “teacher’s” attitude) and my friends, who constantly repeated to me that it was not worth learning.

With these beliefs and my little effort reflected in the grades I received, I was totally convinced that I would never learn English. Until one day, sitting in my living room, listening to music, I remember asking myself what the lyrics to a song meant. Soon, I was searching the internet for the lyrics and the translation of the song, and quickly came to the conclusion that it was truly absurd that most of the things I liked – including movies, songs and series – were from the United States. They were in English and I didn’t understand them. How could I like something that I couldn’t  understand?

And so, my bilingual journey began. I decided one day to grab my school English book and translate the topic we were studying. I started with basic words “When ?, How ?, What?” and step by step I was learning more vocabulary to form sentences and I was also participating more in my classes. My teacher saw the change I made and encouraged me to participate more in class, which motivated me a lot.

Time passed and when I got to high school, English was one of my favorite subjects and even though I very well in the exams and was an active participant in class, I still felt very insecure when speaking during presentations, giving my opinion in class or writing an essay. I didn’t have the basic knowledge of language grammar, so when I turned 15 my parents decided to enroll me in an English language institute here in Maracaibo called CEVAZ. I took a test and was at an intermediate level.

I did well in the classes, I loved to go every day, was constantly learning something new, fully participated, and then would come home to my house to review and make a summary with my notes of what was learned that day in class. Even the teachers encouraged me to teach and become a teacher, but I decided to pass up the opportunity. I graduated with honors and finally felt that this diploma certified that I had achieved one of the things in my life that I thought I would never achieve, becoming bilingual.

With the passage of time I have been losing a bit of fluency, but I have been advancing in other things. In the past I did not like to watch videos in English on YouTube because I thought it was something “difficult, that I was not going to fully understand,” but today I can watch up to movies or series in English and understand it completely or in its majority. What’s more, my favorite youtubers are all American. Now, my next challenge is to buy books in English, to acquire more vocabulary and practice my reading.

My work at Learn Safari has helped me a lot to express myself better, acquire more vocabulary, and increase my understanding. I and am thankful each day for that moment that I decided to break old beliefs and learn English. In this job, I was felt my curiosity towards languages increase; I have learned a lot about the process of language learning and I am more interested in helping others (including my family) learn a second or even third language.

My language-learning journey was not easy at first, but when I look back I always find myself thanking my past self for having decided to be constant, determined and open to another language. Today I see the fruits of this path and it is a decision that I have never regretted. Therefore I advise you, if you are a parent who wants their child to be bilingual or you are the one who wants to learn another language, do not give up. Like everything in life, sometimes it can be an uphill battle and there will always be challenges, but it’s so worth it!

How about you? How was your bilingual journey? What would you say to a person who wants to learn another language? Share with is in the comments.

About the Author

Grecia Martinez is the Operations Administrator of Learn Safari and The Community Manager for Learn Safari ESP and is working on the apps Spanish Safari and Safari Inglés. She has a BA in Electrical Engineering from the Universidad Privada Dr. Rafael Belloso Chacín. She speaks Spanish, English, and is currently working on her French. She loves fitness and is working on her personal training certificate. She lives in Maracaibo, Venezuela. You can follow her and the rest of the team on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.