Posted: Dec 15, 2011 10:24 am
I'm With Stupid wrote:1. At what age did you start to learn English?
When I started going to school. At the age of three-four.
I'm With Stupid wrote:2. What was the English teaching in your public education system like:
a) In which country?
India.
I'm With Stupid wrote:b) At what age did you start learning?
Like I said: around three-four.
I'm With Stupid wrote:c) Did your teacher speak your native language during lessons? If so, what for, and do you think it was beneficial?
d) How much spoken communication in English did you do during these lessons?
Only when the teacher was teaching a lesson; explaining some aspects thereof in English. If at any point it became too obvious that children were getting uncomfortable with her explanations in English, she would switch to the native language, Hindi. Every query, barring those from a few students (who were considered snobbish if they did so), was made in the native language. In response, the teacher would use the mix of both languages. So, it wasn't beneficial at all, until I started taking my own interest in the language, which was not inspired by my teachers or the institute.
I'm With Stupid wrote:3. Did you supplement this with private tuition/study in a private language centre? If so, same a) b) c) & d) questions again.
I didn't.
I'm With Stupid wrote:4. Did you ever live abroad in a situation that required you to use English regularly
No.
I'm With Stupid wrote:5. Other than living abroad, how often did you get to communicate in English? And what form did these communications take?
In my previous workplace, it required me to talk to the clients in the English language.
Even though they all spoke fluent English, my colleagues would never talk with each other in the English language. However, I did make a conscious, albeit sloppy, effort to speak with them in English, they seldom used to reply back in English. Personally speaking, my spoken English is on a sloppy side, considering my school never encouraged it and that it was never spoken in my house.
I'm With Stupid wrote:6. How often did you consume English-language media, and did you do so with a conscious effort to study/understand it?
I became seriously interested in the English language after I started reading Cricket-related magazines and few books while still in school (from grade XI, though). However, after I was introduced to the Internet, I totally got into reading and learning the English language. So my good writing skills could be totally credited to the power of the internet.
