My autobiography

Who am I as a learner 

Irene Calvo 

I was born, twenty years ago, in a beautiful, small town in Valencia, known by its orchards and its tiger nut milk – Alboraya. Since I remember, I have always been very nosey about the world that we all live in. I was a very active, curious, and communicative child. In fact, my mom told me that I was always asking lots of questions about everything that surrounded me: why are things like that? Why is the sky blue? Why does the Sun bright? Why can birds fly? 

When I started school, I kept that curiosity with me, and it turned into self-learning: I started to be really interested in learning English, and later on, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. So what could I do? I decided to learn on my own, and I started looking for online guitar tabs and translating English songs. That is when I found out how far I could get, and I felt very motivated for keeping discovering new things. 

Once I got in university, I wanted to learn more about English. Because of that, I decided to take an intensive English course, and I could see the results in two months: my skills had improved incredibly, and I passed the FCE exam. At that moment, I felt really proud of myself. After that, I decided it was time to learn more about English teaching, so I started teaching ten-year-old children. I have to say that, apart from pride, I was feeling excitement about being paid. 

As a conclusion, I consider that the key for my success in English learning consists basically of two factors: my innate interest and inquisitiveness and, especially, the support I received from my parents. They were always encouraging me to ask more questions, to discover on my own. So, although my first contact with English took place at school, these two factors have been crucial in helping me become the upper-intermediate English learner that I am today.