Who Am I As A Learner

By 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.

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 keeping my curiosity alive. So, although my first contact with English took place at school, I could say that these two factors have been crucial in helping me become the upper-intermediate English learner that I am today.