A personal memoir

English is widely accepted as an international language. A majority of the world’s population uses the English language either as a first language or as a second language. It is the most commonly spoken language in the US, Australia, Canada, as well as in some parts of Europe and Africa. Ever since I was a small child, my parents, especially my father insisted on ensuring that all of us as his children understood the importance of being able to communicate and write in the English language effectively. I confess that at the time, I had no idea as to what he was talking about. However, all my brothers and sisters and I had to contend with learning English from elementary school to high school.

As time went by and we grew older and inevitably took on distinct career paths and grew into fully independent young adults, the reality of the advantages associated with being fluent in the English language became increasingly clear. I noticed that my schoolmates and friends who had the right environment which allowed for fluency in English had an easy time getting good employment in large multinational companies which had come to do business in our country. This was immediately after high school. I noticed that this trend was due to the simple fact that the larger multinational companies were in need of workers who could effectively communicate in English hence enable the companies to meet their desired business objectives.

I eventually got employed with one of the multinational companies whose home country was the US. The FedEx Company from America dealt with ensuring that its clients got their goods in time and in good condition. This required us to have sufficient knowledge of English to be able to read customer addresses when sorting packages for people in different regions within our country. I have to admit that the job was quite challenging during the first few weeks and it took the patience of my supervisor and mentorship from my fluent friends to be able to fit in into my job description. All in all, I did not like the experience during this first few weeks. As much as my friends knew how to communicate in English, they preferred using our native language during social meetings. I had to take it upon myself to continue to learn how to become fluent in English by befriending some of the native English speaking staff at FedEx to improve on my English speaking skills.

After working with the company for six months, my father called me home to discuss on what I intended to study as a career. This was one of the few times my father and I talked seriously and at great length. I informed him that my experiences at FedEx had served to help understand why it is important to study the English language as a second language. The dialogue we had was very encouraging. Here is a little of what we discussed.

Father: Now that you have come of age, what do you think you would like to pursue as a career?

Me: I have to be honest Father; I have not yet made up my mind.

Father: You had better make up your mind soon, time waits for no man or woman.

Me: Yes Father. But I have made up my mind that whatever I choose to study for my career will have to be supported by  studying English as a second language.

This put a smile on his face. It was rare to see him smile and it made me feel that my experiences made me appreciate him more. We both came to the conclusion that whatever I sought to undertake for my college or university studies would have to involve learning English as a second language.

As fate would have it, I moved to America where English is the native language. The American people are very kind and helpful once they understand that you are from a foreign land. My English is rather substandard and need more work to enable me effectively study for my college courses. I have noted that a number of my fellow students are studying the English language as a second language too. This has offered me with a great opportunity to meet other people from other foreign countries and exchange ideas on how best to master the English language in the shortest time possible.

I have also met a number of students who are from my home country in an education center offering ELS. So far, I have come to appreciate the lectures my father used to give us as his children during my younger days. The experiences with FedEx at my home country have also played an important role. One thing that is for sure, I am now in a better position to take on ELS classes. I am a more mature ELS student who has been shaped to embrace the English language as a very important language for my future career development. I am also very lucky to be in a country where everyone is a native English speaker. This will enable me to polish on my English language communication skills and make me more fluent in speaking and writing English.

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