hey guys how's it going welcome to go
natural English I'm Gabby your English
teacher and today I'm not going to be
teaching you English I want to talk
about my journey in language learning
now I'm a native English speaker but I
love learning foreign languages and one
of my best languages now is Portuguese I
didn't come into contact with any
Brazilian or Portuguese people until I
was about 20 years old
so I didn't learn Portuguese growing up
so I wanted to talk with you because I
think you might be able to relate with
this learning a foreign language as an
adult it's not easy but if you figure
out the ways that work it's really
really enjoyable right so when I was
about 20 years old I met my first
Brazilian acquaintance
and that person I think was a boyfriend
of my classmates and a person just made
me curious about Brazilian culture and
so I started learning about Brazilian
music and I actually stumbled upon a
Samba dance performance and when I saw
that and I heard the music I just fell
in love I loved Samba music the drums
the rhythm the dance it just I was
captivated I was thinking I have to get
to know more about this culture and
music and the language too because I
started listening to traditional music
Samba from artists like palnu da viola
and learning the lyrics from those songs
helped me to become fluent in Portuguese
so that's one tip that anyone learning a
language if you're learning English you
can find music that you love find the
lyrics to the songs that you enjoy and
memorize them read them sing them
memorize them by singing the song over
and
/ so I learned a lot about Brazilian
culture and music and language while I
was living in the United States simply
listening to a lot of music and reading
and um just trying to learn more about
things that I was interested in and so
this is another tip try to follow your
curiosity and learn more about the
things that you are interested in in
English or any language that you want to
learn okay so finally when I finished
college I saved up my money and I
rewarded myself with his trip to Brazil
so finally I was able to go and test out
the vocabulary that I've learned from
songs and my listening skills that I've
been practicing with music so I got to
Brazil and I could only understand about
ten percent of what I heard I'm sure you
can relate if you've ever been in an
english-speaking country it's a little
bit of a shock comparing what you can
understand from your favorite songs that
you've listened to a thousand times
versus real-life native speaker
conversations so it was a bit of a shock
that was several several years ago like
13 years ago so over the last several
years I've had the opportunity to go
back to Brazil several times as well as
other countries - and crappie come here
baby
come on hey come here baby
I thought scrappy wanted to join us what
was I saying that I've been back to
Brazil several times and I've been able
to use the Portuguese that I learned
little by little each time that I
learned by studying things that I enjoy
and by participating in conversations by
connecting with people and by doing the
things that I enjoy like dams and
martial arts and cooking and just having
conversations with people so after
several years now I feel pretty
confident in any situation and I'm proud
that I don't really need a guide to get
around and I can understand what's
really happening I don't have to rely on
translations that may or may not be
totally accurate so I love having that
power and confidence and independence
and really the freedom to go pretty much
anywhere without a guide so last time I
went back to Brazil a few months ago I
took a Samba dance class with a famous
dancer
Evelyn vast fossils which is the queen s
ISA the dancer for Mong Guerra a samba
school in Rio de Janeiro and I got a
certificate and that's pretty cool right
I got a certificate saying I'm a
certified Samba dancer well I was
thinking about it and just like any kind
of certificate whether it's a
certificate for dance or for another
skill it's not the certificate that
really matters if you get a certificate
in English that's great it's a great
goal and it's awesome to achieve but
what's even more important than the
certificate is your daily use of the
language right that's what I really find
most joy in because when I got that
piece of paper that certificate I felt
maybe 30 seconds of joy enjoyment and
that was awesome but I get a lot more
enjoyment from actually using the
language on a daily basis from actually
interacting with people from
and exploring what I enjoy in that
culture and in that language so you know
as they say it's really a journey not
the destination that is so awesome so I
just encourage you to enjoy your journey
in English to come along with the go
natural English community online and to
enjoy English together so if you're
ready to do that to get fluent in
English and to enjoy every step of the
way through using it on a daily basis
and connecting with people and following
your curiosity using English as a tool
then let's go stay in touch get
subscribe here on YouTube to the go
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I'm so excited to be your English
teacher but also your English speaking
friends and share more of language
learning and life style with you so
that's all for now
and I hope you have an awesome day I
look forward to seeing your comments
about your language learning journey -
bye for now