My First Experience with English
My experience with English
By: Victor Yakimov The first day of school is always a rush. There’s meeting new people, not knowing where to go, and saying hi to teachers who act nice at first, but will inevitably get fed up with your childish behavior and go crazy. Yes, first days are a mix of happiness and dread but the most hectic is the very first day ever. My own experience with the first was probably the worst.
Being brought up in a Russian household the only language I knew how to speak was Russian. I’m not even joking. The only word I knew in English was c.d. and that’s not ever a word. Anyway since going to school is the law, my parents had to enroll me in elementary school. Me being their first child, they were not too clear on the age requirements for elementary school. They didn’t pay much attention to my age, so I had to go straight to first grade without kindergarten and no knowledge of the English language. Not so much fun
The whole day was probably the most confused I have ever been in my life. I get to school not knowing where I am supposed to go and I can’t tell the counselors anything because I didn’t understand. Eventually I get to my classroom and I sit down. Something I did not know about elementary schools was that there is this thing called “Assigned seats”. After a lot of pointing, strange hand gestures and slow speaking, I understood that this was not my seat. Since I wasn’t in my ESOL class yet, the teacher just sat me in the back and made me listen to books on tape while holding the corresponding book in my lap. I didn’t know it yet, but this eventually got me hooked on books and at that moment in time, my eyesight began its slow steady decline.
Anyway, after about two hours we went out to recess. Supposed to be fun, right? You’re just supposed to go outside and enjoy the weather. Nope. Apparently the playground is divided into two different sections just so the delicate teachers won’t have to yell
By: Victor Yakimov The first day of school is always a rush. There’s meeting new people, not knowing where to go, and saying hi to teachers who act nice at first, but will inevitably get fed up with your childish behavior and go crazy. Yes, first days are a mix of happiness and dread but the most hectic is the very first day ever. My own experience with the first was probably the worst.
Being brought up in a Russian household the only language I knew how to speak was Russian. I’m not even joking. The only word I knew in English was c.d. and that’s not ever a word. Anyway since going to school is the law, my parents had to enroll me in elementary school. Me being their first child, they were not too clear on the age requirements for elementary school. They didn’t pay much attention to my age, so I had to go straight to first grade without kindergarten and no knowledge of the English language. Not so much fun
The whole day was probably the most confused I have ever been in my life. I get to school not knowing where I am supposed to go and I can’t tell the counselors anything because I didn’t understand. Eventually I get to my classroom and I sit down. Something I did not know about elementary schools was that there is this thing called “Assigned seats”. After a lot of pointing, strange hand gestures and slow speaking, I understood that this was not my seat. Since I wasn’t in my ESOL class yet, the teacher just sat me in the back and made me listen to books on tape while holding the corresponding book in my lap. I didn’t know it yet, but this eventually got me hooked on books and at that moment in time, my eyesight began its slow steady decline.
Anyway, after about two hours we went out to recess. Supposed to be fun, right? You’re just supposed to go outside and enjoy the weather. Nope. Apparently the playground is divided into two different sections just so the delicate teachers won’t have to yell