When I was twelve years old, my family and I moved to the countryside, to a small town named “Biritiba Mirim”. I am originally from São Paulo, which is a metropolis, so when I moved there it was a little strange at first but gradually I got used to living there.

Since it was a countryside town, the living cost there was much cheaper so my parents could afford an English course for my sister and me.

Studying English was such an important thing in my life. I could even say that it was a turning point in my whole life story. English was the first foreign language I studied and the moment I had contact with it, I realized that learning languages was not a task, but a hobby for me. It was like discovering what has the power of bringing me joy and maybe a future career. (Of course I wasn’t really deep thinking about my future career back then since I was only a kid, but anyways…)

I remember me trying to make a monologue in English everyday during shower which, in fact, is something that I still do frequently, but now in other languages such as Polish, Japanese and Chinese.

Learning a second language was like learning new parts of my personality somehow.

One of the best moments I had in life was in 2012 when my English teacher said “You’re fluent already”. It was a mixture of happiness and “shock”. In that moment I discovered that being fluent, different from what I believed previously and a lot of people still believe, is not about being perfect in every grammar point or knowing all the words while reading a book. It is about being efficient when communicating with others in your target language and knowing that changed my life.

I have even worked as a part-time English teacher during college! It was an awesome experience, but life changes and it’s been a year since I quit my teaching part-time job to work at a bank – not because I studied to work in a financial world, but because they needed someone who would be able to communicate in Chinese with the employees.

I do know that I can improve my English and that’s why I am writing this text.

If I made any mistakes while writing this or you can highlight some sentences that I could’ve done better, please let me know.

Being conscious about the errors one makes while writing or speaking a foreign language is the first step to fix them and develop one’s level further.