Greetings from Keystone Toronto!
We were lucky enough last week to host two exchange students from Italy. They assisted us around the school and also took the time to write up some pieces on their experiences studying English as a Second Language.
First up, we have Elisa’s post about her time studying English and her aspirations to study more languages in the future.
I started to learn English as a Second Language when I was just six. I used to go to elementary school, even though I had already done some English lessons at the kindergarten. I mainly study English at school, but I also practise at home, in order to improve this language as best as possible.
I find English really easy to learn and understand. It’s the best way for me to have an opportunity to communicate with the entire world and travel. This made me choose to study this language, in addition to the fact that it’s essential for my working career as a means to achieve all my goals, including that of living abroad.
If I have to be honest, from a grammatical point of view, English is easier than Italian, just because there are much fewer rules and verb tenses. However, English pronunciation is the most difficult part of learning this language. I have to pay attention to the way I pronounce certain words, before I end up understanding one thing and saying another.
At first, I was pretty scared to come to a predominantly English-speaking city [like Toronto]. My fear was that of not being able to understand the locals well when they turned to me. By the way, I have to say that this fear completely disappeared in the exact moment I arrived in Canada. Communication is not as difficult as I expected!
In addition to English, and of course Italian, I speak two other languages: French and German. French is also quick to learn because it’s very similar to Italian, but German is almost impossible. For my future I’m hopeful of being able to learn at least two or three other languages, including Japanese, Arabic and maybe Spanish or Russian.
