When I learned English in Canada. Personal experience - Essay Example

The language skills I had to acquire in Canada were completely strange to me. I had to learn English which was a new language to me. Everyone around me was speaking in English which sounded and looked weird to me. Growing up in Saudi Arabia never gave the interest of learning English. In my home country, the knowledge of English was not significant in the daily life. With or without knowledge of English language one was able to get along pretty well without noticing one had a deficiency in one of the world’s significant languages.

Coming to Canada, however, brought up a new scenario. English is the main language and in order to have a comfortable life I had to learn English. I had knowledge of some English words. I could mildly understand when someone addressed me in English. But I could not give them a reply in English. I used to have a bit of understanding of English but I did not have any interest in having any communicating skills in the language. While in Canada, I had to develop both listening and speaking skills that could help me survive in my new environment.

I have spent three years in Canada, and my progress in terms of learning English has been significant. At the moment, I can construct sensible sentences in English. This is contrary to what I could do within the first few months I was in the foreign country. When I first came to Canada, I went to Toronto so that I could access materials to help me learn English. Being one of the major cities in the country, the access to learning materials was easier. However, I had to move out of the city to start my education.

I moved to a province known by the name Sult ste Mrie. It was a few kilometers away from Toronto, but the development in this town was almost comparable to the one in Toronto. The town was energetic but small and filled with more leisure activities than Toronto. In this town, I could see more foreigners which made a little more comfortable. At one point as I walked around the town I came across a Saudi Arabian national talking fluently to some of the locals. This intrigued me and gave me hope of learning English and becoming an integral part of this new society.

Apart from learning English I had need for education that was offered in Canada. This hope was made bleak with my little knowledge of English which was used in most schools. I had to first learn proper English then pursue my career I wanted. I enrolled in Algoma University. At this institution, I only had the aim of learning English. It was my time in this institution I met with many other foreigners who could not speak and write fluent English. This made me even more comfortable since I found people with the same weakness as mine.

This common feature brought us closer to each other as we found some unique ways of communication. Just as I was, all students in my class had the urge of learning English. This urge made us more of a team than classmates. The communication between us could be easily confused a sign language or a secretive language. Individuals with the vast knowledge of English would listen to us but never understand what we were talking about. In some occasion, our English tutor was the referred to as the only sane person in our midst.

However, with what we had in mind, heart and soul, we could not let this deter us from achieving what we had come for in Canada. The whole new experience in learning English was incredible as for the first time I felt I was becoming part of my environment. Regardless of where I came from, I could look at people as I walked across streets and see we belong to this world under the same denominator. Suddenly, I gained the confidence the locals had. I could walk into a restaurant