How I Improved my English Communication Skills

I don’t often use the English language in my daily conversation with people. It’s not because I’m a native Filipino but because I’m still proud of my native tongue. It is also not because I don’t know how to speak English, as a matter of fact, it’s what I do everyday in my work, write English articles and blogs. 

I only converse in English when I need to, such as talking to my Vietnamese boss, to my foreign colleagues in the office, or to foreign students enrolled at Cleverlearn who are learning English as second language. But I'm teaching mono-syllabic English words to my daughter now that she's 15 months old. I want to ensure she can speak English proficiently when she grows older because I definitely believe she can have a brighter future with that. Believe me!

I grew up with the English language, and until now majority of my day spent is reading and writing in English. I am not a grammarian nor I am an English expert, but I am confident I have a good grasp of English (developed through my passion in writing), and I can certainly speak to Americans, British, or Australian. I have previously worked with 3 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies owned by foreign nationalities from these 3 powerful nations. Being able to work with foreign companies made me even more confident that my English language skills have improved.

I must admit that I graduated from high school with a feeling of inferiority because of my not-so-good grades in Science, Mathematics, and English subject. It was because I wasn’t a very hardworking student way back then. I enjoyed playing with my childhood friends and classmates every after school and during weekends, and I realized that studying was a very difficult task. Because of financial insufficiency and strong determination, I became diligent in college and was able to finish my bachelor's degree in Architecture. Now you think it’s ironic because I’m supposed to build buildings instead of writing articles.

Well, my first love was news casting, so I wanted to become a journalist. I was confused if I could make it way back then because of my erroneous English grammars. Yet, I believed it will be developed along the way, and perhaps I will study English further because the wide coverage of media is in English. Still, financial insufficiency was the reason behind that led me to where I am now. Had it not because of poverty, perhaps I am one of those newscasters you see on television news daily.

I remember 3 years ago when I was a part-time kindergarten teacher at a certain preparatory school in our neighborhood. It was my first time being a teacher in an accredited learning center. Handling children as young as 3 years old was very tough, I knew it. That was a challenge. But working with licensed and experienced teachers was even more challenging. But I didn’t have to compete myself with them because I was far behind their teaching experience, besides, teaching 3 or 4 year old kids was apparently manageable and facile, I thought. The most difficult part was handling these hyperactive kids, keeping their patience during discussions, and controlling my temper.

In my first few days of working as a part-time teacher, I was just working on my own without so much asking help from my co-teachers because I was shy and hesitant. I did my very best and it was like I went back to my elementary years. And because I wasn’t talking so much with my co-teachers and to the parents of these kids, their impression was, “Is she a good teacher?”

School’s sports festival came and I was asked to co-host the program. I have already hosted quite a few programs especially weddings but they were my friends’ special occasion where most of the guests were familiar to me. But a school’s crowd is different and larger. My very first hosting experience though was in my first year in college during our acquaintance party. But there were 4 of us hosting the party for such a big crowd of Architecture students, so it was controllable. 

Co-hosting the learning center’s sports festival was another challenge because I will be facing not just the kids and my co-teachers, but the parents of these kids as well. But I was flattered because they were all surprised I could do such hosting skill. Since then they were intimidated about my capability. But still, I did not take it as a competition because teaching is a dedication and not just as an obligation.