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Mingjia Yuan (Camilla)

Professor Carlisi

ESL 33B Project 1

08 March 2018

Learning English

When I was a kid, I started to learn English. However, I did not imagine that I

have had a chance to study abroad or even live overseas in the future. Now, I am in

the U.S, and I had a long, exciting experience in my learning English process. I found

I can have some body language to enhance my meaning that I try to say after I learned

how to speak English and communicate with others, I also found reading and

watching TV can increase my vocabulary.

Even I start to learn English very early; I am not a native speaker. I was born in

Hangzhou, a beautiful place located in the south of China. I studied basic English at

the elementary school in China before I went abroad. After, I studied two years in

Singapore and four years in England. Then, my parents decided to immigrate to Los

Angeles to accompany with my brother and me; therefore, I transferred to Pasadena

City College (PCC) to continuing my school life. Now, I had already studied at PCC

for one year, and I would like to transfer to a university to do the business

management major.

When I was seven, I enrolled in a first real school in my life. I met many new

faces in the school: the classmates, the schoolmates, and teachers. I felt happy and

excited. I studied basic English at the primary school in my hometown. I still

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remember when I began to study English, I felt curious. Firstly, English is entirely

different than Chinese in both writing and speaking. When I first saw the English

letters, I laughed, English alphabet looks like a circle, and every note has a little ring

on it. In contrast, Chinese words look like a square, and each one combines many

different strokes. As I started to learn it, I found it was smoother than Chinese, only

has 26 alphabets we need to remember. Due to newness, I put all my vigor to inside,

every day I forced myself to remember ten words and some simple sentences. E.g.,

‘Hello, how are you’ ‘I’m fine thank you,’ ‘what’s your name,’ etc. After six years’

study, I gained much new knowledge about English and acquired an excellent grade

on the general examination. Therefore, my parent decided sent me to oversea for

further study. They believed I could use my strong point to make a massive success in

my future life.

In 2011, when I was 12 years old, I started to have my education abroad alone.

The first country I went to study in Singapore. Singapore is a multinational country.

Even it contains many different country’s people; the majority race is Chinese in

there. As the research in 2009, 75% of Chinese had lived in Singapore. It is a similar

country to China, there was no jet lag, no racial discrimination, and cultural shock,

but the only difference between two nations is mother tongue. Singapore is a colony

of England, so they used English as their first language. My junior high school in

Singapore has terrific Full-English teaching. As an international school, I found

unprecedented difficulty, and it was my first time to heard full English in class.

Unfortunately, I totally could not understand the learning material in class. I felt
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disappointed in myself. At that time, I have the same situation and feel like

‘Yezierska,’ as she wrote in her essay, she cannot involve in college, and she wants to

change inside and outside of herself. Like she, I keep asking myself did I suitable for

this place, did I suitable for study overseas, should I leave? I saw everyone could chat

with teacher, discussion and ask the question in the class, but I was like a ‘mute’ at

that time. Unlike Yezierska, I do not as strong as she did, I cried when I went back to

my resident, I felt I am the outsider for this place. My roommate was the first friend I

made in the school when she saw the happened. She comforts me promises she will

teach me English. After her help, I improved English dramatically. One year later, I

can understand teaching material, and I can talk with a native speaker. When I

communicate with the native speaker, I saw they would do body language like use

finger do ‘quotation mark.’ Two years later, I told my parents I want to change a

country to continue my further study. Therefore, my parent gives a chance to me to

start a new life in the UK. The reason I want to leave Singapore is I think Singapore is

not a perfect place to study. First, there were too many Chinese people live in

Singapore. I can use Chinese across the whole country which did not help me more in

the study. Second, Singaporean did not speak pure English that makes the

pronunciation challenging to hear.

England is the second place I went to study. Unlike Singapore, UK is a long

history’s country. A new world, a new country, an entirely different situation than

Singapore and China. White color skin, blue eyesight and tall is the first impression in

my mind for British people. ‘Gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ is first words I like to used to
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described them after I involved in the place. The high school I studied in England

located in a small town. A quietness place for study, I studied four different subjects

rapidly on every day to get into a university. As a high school student, I knew what I

need to improve on the English and what major I choose to study in the future. To

enroll in a university, I learned the IELTS and the subjects for my own major. Finally,

I graduated from high school and became a university student. ‘Sussex university’

was the school I enrolled in the UK. I met many interested people in it and started to

have nightlife. I went to the club at the weekend, drink alcohol with friends and chat

with people in the club. I found my speaking level improved fastly and learned the

British pronunciation. I was learning new words and sentences while I talking with

English friends. I enjoyed the life that I got in the recent, until one day my parent told

me we need to move to the US.

Now, I am in the Los Angeles. Even I came to a new country; I can not

stop to study English. I had been to PCC for one year. I learned new things from here.

I studied ESL 122 at the beginning, and it focuses on my weak point in English

‘Grammar’. Professor tough slowly and carefully in her class; therefore, I can have

improved dramatically on grammar. After I met my ESL 33A professor, a nice teacher

at all. In his class, it was relaxed but also helpful. And now, I am studying in ESL

33B, last level before entering English 1A. ESL 33B is a hard class for me, free

writing, project, LD quiz everything is new for me. In the essay ‘freewriting’ by both

Elbow and Goldberg, I found the same thing that I need to work on is practiced and

keep working every day. However, I believe, if I followed the rules that professor
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gives, I will pass from this class, and I will make a good result in next level.

In conclusion, study English is a laborious and exciting process. From my

studying, I went four different countries, and I learned the body language that native

speaker would use when they were talking. Also, I gained the new vocabulary and

grammar from studying ESL classes. I laughed when I make a success; I even cried

when I failed the exam. I have a lot of things need to improve my English, for

example, grammar mistake is a big problem and sentences structure. I will keep

working on it, and the only goals that I want to achieve in ESL 33B class pass it and

enter ENG 1A.