How English changed my life

A degree in English was not what I first started to persue when I started college. I had different plans and a blurred vision of what I wanted to do with my life.

I started college when I was almost 18. I was thinking about majoring in Spanish, which is my native language, however I found it to be easy, and in my poor opinion, I thought anybody could graduate on that (yeah, I know, shame on me!), so, instead, I decided to enroll in what I thought would be "a more demanding major": Statistics.

I started to take as many subjects as I could. I took about three different Economics classes, Theory of Probabilities, Algebra, and many others, and even though I got good grades on all of them, I still thought I wasn't really feeling it or picturing myself working on that field.

I started to think about changing to another major, but still wasn't sure where I really belonged. So I had the feeling of being kind of trapped. On one hand, I had been on college for 2 years or so already, and I didn't want to throw all that time and money down the drain. On the other hand, I had to start from scratch, while explaing all relatives the reasons of my "drastic change" over and over on every get-together, aside of the self shame and regret for not taking the right desicion. I was trapped in a limbo of "what if".

But miraculously, something really great happened to me. I was informed I was given a scholarship to go to a SUNY college in the United States to master my English skills, since I studied in the public English program the year before and I happened to be one of the top of the class, along with 53 or so other students around the country.

I stayed in the U.S.A. for about one month and a half and honestly it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I learned a lot and traveled to many places there. But above all else, I met this smart, funny and beautiful professor who showed me that being an English teacher is not so simple and not anyone can nail it. I fell in love with the idea of becoming a certified teacher of the English language.

When I came back to the country, Dominican Republic, I changed my major. Ever since, I have been studying Modern Languages, minor in English. I am heading to my sixth semester and I couldn't be happier. I have taken some training on teaching and I will begin tutoring in a few days. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Honestly I am happy with my decision but I wish I had done it sooner. But I know everything happens for a reason and I think if you're constantly studying and having experiences that get you more knowledge, it is not a waste of time, even if you change the major you're studying.

I advice you to conquer the fear and do what really makes you happy, even if you think it will take you long.

Remember: It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

What do you mean? Interpretales!!

Ho-laaa!

Hey guys! Welcome to my blog Interpretales. This blog is envisioned to be a space where English language students or just anyone trying to learn or practice this beautiful language on their own. I will be posting in both English and Spanish to create a bilingual learning environment. For my first blog entry I was thinking about what to write. So, why not start explaining or basically telling you what’s behind Interpretales? What does that mean?

Well, first, I have been wanting to start a blogging career for a year now and always procrastinated about that. I was really scared to input the very first character on what seemed a never-ending, digital page in blank. Aside from that, I needed to have a niche, -a special field to write about-, but I didn’t seem to succeed at that.

Later, I realized that I wanted to write about my own major which happens to be my passion and I love anything that would be related to that. Besides, I want to have my own presence on Internet, it is to say, a personal brand. Like my own little project that I start nurturing with warm love and great content.

Following that, I started thinking about what my blog name would be. Then, something came to mind, like those things that awakens you late at night and keeps you up for hours, along with a high level of “good anxiety”. It had the title “Interpretales” all over the pace and I knew right away that I would be the perfect name for what I wanted to do.

On one hand, Interpretales, if you speak Spanish, could be decodified as a command where someone is being told to “interpret” what is being said. What I mean by this when it comes to my blog, is that I will be “interpreting”: writings from Spanish, things learned in class or maybe a song I just listened to. I will “translate” chunks of abstract ideas into pieces of writing.

On the other hand, for the ones that are always thinking in English, Interpretales would sound pretty much like /interpre-tels/ pretty much said like “the tales of an interpreter” which for me, implies any experiences throughout my classes and life, a sudden thought, a mere opinion, a vague idea or just anything that comes to mind that I find interesting to share.

So, this is basically it. Therefore, stay tuned for more blogs. I advise you I am still learning to master my English skills so I will be open to any corrections and suggestions. 

Any thoughts?? Let me know in the comments!