Let's English

Hello everybody and welcome to my humble blog.

As you maybe have seen my profile, I’m an English teacher. What I’m trying to do is to help people improve their English language, or even start with them to learn this amazing language which I like so much.

I would like to start with my own experience through which I achieved native-like competence of American English.

Long ago, since I was a little child at nearly the age of 10 and by mere chance I was exposed to Whitney Houston's song entitled "I will always love you".
That made a great, deep impression in me though I didn't understand what I heard. So, I kept trying to repeat the song but in vain because I didn't speak English, so I tried to remember the melody only in order not to forget the song because maybe one day I’ll come to know this song’s title.

After about five years and by chance again I bought a cassette that included Whitney’s song and Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on “as well. That was amazing I was so happy I found the song I was looking for.
Then I started to listen to my local radio stations which broadcasted English songs, and sometimes they were telling the lyrics of those songs. That helped a lot, but until that time I wasn’t seeking learning English. Then, and with the passage of time I started understanding few words and sometimes fifty percent of the songs I hear on the radio. Of course I was a secondary school student at that time, so I had some English grammar. I want you to know that what was driving me is love, the love of that language.
I wasn’t intending to improve my English, but it was automatically improving by the passage of time.
After I was grown up a little bit I decided to study English Literature at the university, because I said to myself this is the best subject I’ve been good at during my school life, so I want to do it. And that’s what happened; I studied English Literature at university and graduated recently.

There’s something I want you to know, my native-like competence didn’t evolve because of the university, it evolved from hardworking and self-study. I used to listen to native speakers of both British and American English almost all the time, I imitated their pronunciation, and of course this didn’t happen simultaneously, I had to repeat and practice even with myself i.e. I spoke to myself sometimes loudly and I’m still doing it. Because you know… and as one of my friends here at Ebaby told me that he is not finding a person to communicate with in English, I didn’t have my English mate as well, not even had a person to speak English with. Some said that : come on man, we’re not English why should use their language, some didn’t have the courage, and many others couldn’t communicate in English though they were English Literature students and were exposed to English almost daily and for at least five six hours a day.
So I decided to chat with English people on the internet. Most of my conversations were by writing only, I had the chance to speak via voice only twice in the last four years.

It was such a pleasure to speak English fluently at least for a few minutes with my professors back at the university.
I tried to speak all the time. I needed a chance so I told one of my instructors to let me make a presentation in front of all my colleagues, and she said ok. I did it, and during it I cracked a joke in order to refresh the students but guess what happened?! Only four guys understood what I said and laughed. Oh my God, I was shocked but still, I wanted to go on.
You might ask yourselves this question “How could this guy pronounce English like native speakers, and I’ve been trying so hard to do that and I couldn’t?! Even though I’ve been studying English for years and in formal classes”.

I can tell you something but I don’t want you to get disappointed or frustrated; as I studied language learning theories and how a child acquires his mother tongue and how an adult learns a new language and how far can he or she achieve native-like competence of that language, this could be up to many factors like: age, teacher, environment, the right input etc…….
But my case as I think is a kind of innateness, something I was inborn with, so no matter how hard you try, no matter what you do you’re not gonna reach that point. I don’t wanna disappoint you but this is the truth as far as pronunciation is concerned.

But, you should keep learning and trying to improve your English whatsoever, don’t lose hope and practice English pronunciation as much as you could because not all learners of English are native-like speakers, but some have a nice pronunciation, they’re able to communicate with others, they can express themselves clearly.

Finally, one of the best ways to improve your English is using it, use it or lose it.
Please help me fulfilling my quest by commenting on my articles and lessons.
Please feel free to share me your ideas and thoughts, and don’t hesitate to contact me at Ebaby!

Mr. Firass Kaddour

Syrian Arab Republic