Dear Yvonne,

My name is Erica and I’ve been learning English since I was 12 years old. At the beginning, it
was just for fun, but then, I realized how important this language was for my future. My dream
job has always been to be a teacher, so I started to push myself in order to focus on my
strengths and weaknesses. I think I’m making progress and I’m pleased about that. However,
there were some areas I struggled with when I started to study English.

To begin with, watching films in advanced English was a huge challenge for me. I felt stressed
because I wasn’t capable to understand idioms I had never heard before. So, I started to design
my own strategy. Writing down vocabulary and expressions I considered important, which has
been really helpful.

As for my oral skills, I’m a really shy person. Making mistakes when I spoke was really
frustrating for me. It was quite a challenge to lose the fear of public speaking. Now, I can tell
that making any sort of progress was a tall order. Nevertheless, my ability to focus on my
weaknesses and transform them into strengths, was the best way to improve myself. My
language skills took off and I felt pleased.

Nowadays, I still continue improving. I strongly believe that learning a new language is a
process that lasts forever.

Many thanks for the opportunity to tell you a bit about myself. I’m looking forward to hearing
how your journey with this language started.

With best wishes,

Erica