About my journey learning English My love for English started when I was a child. I remember dad teaching me the greetings when I was 5. Fast forward 10 years, I enrolled in an English class. Where the teacher used to speak Spanish most of the time. I used to spend my summer vacations at this academy. I met a lot of people. But, after 2 years of classes, I wasn’t able to keep a basic conversation. Obviously, I wasn't going to give up. I paid undivided attention to my teachers at school and I managed to get very good grades. I was the best student in the English course. But, by the age of 17, after all those years of study, I wasn’t able to speak. One day, I went to a book store and bought a copy of a method for learning English. I went through it with excitement. I finished the book in two months. And, I learned a lot of useful phrases. Which, gave me the confidence to write short stories. The method the author proposes is rather simple. First, you have to learn the words in English that are similar to your mother tongue. They are called cognates. There is a list of 100 words that are written the same in Spanish but pronounced differently. Then, there is a list of the most common verbs and a lot of examples and stories. The idea is to learn the words in context. There is also a list of prepositions with pictures, and again more short stories. At the end of the book there are fixed phrases that the author recommends to memorize. And a blank page where you are supposed to write your goals for learning English. After that, I decided to memorize song lyrics and record myself speaking. Then, I got a scholarship to study in Honduras, where I met many Americans. After my graduation, I went to Nicaragua to work as a school teacher. The principal was American, and he used to invite brigades from the US to work in the community. I told him I spoke English and soon I was working as a translator. Back in my country, I applied for a bilingual position but I got rejected 3 times. So, I decided to take my English to the next level. I started to listen to podcasts in English every day. I did this for 6 months, then I reapplied and got the job. I worked for Hotels.com as a customer service rep. for one year and a half. And, now I teach English at an English academy. Also, I will start working for Microsoft next week helping US customers. I know my English is not perfect. However, I feel confident speaking now. And, I know I can get whatever I want in life if I set my mind to do it.