Autobiography

March 2017 - Vereda El Centro - Neiva, Huila

My name is Carolina Santa and I am 25 years old. I am currently working at a High School located east of Cauca department, a place I felt enchanted by since the first time I placed my eyes on the mountains of Kokonuko, Puracé.

I have always liked the idea of learning English (specifically). I do not remember having faced any struggle while getting used to the phonemes and linguistic aspect. I believe the reason for that is the fact that I like reading since a very young age and it helped nourish my knowledge on grammar ascpects of the language per se. Also, my mother used to listen to 70s & 80s american and british bands and I believe this is the reason why pronounciaton and phonemes were not a big deal (not that I am the best at speaking).

I can't recall having a lot of language learning experiences. I never went to an institute nor took any kind of particular English classes. Everything I learned I did it at school and of course, because of the effort that I used to do in class. I really liked learning English and the fact of how different it made someone from the others. The fact of understanding the messages in the songs, in the T.V, on adds, and being able to read a paragraph or two from a book, had a big impact on me.   
However, I believe the most significant moment during the acquisition of the second language was when I had Disney Chanel at home, and that meant watching musical movies and TV series such as Hannah Montana (also a bout music). The movie that motivated me to learn its songs was High School Musical. I remeber being captivated by the scenarios and the actors and I told myself that I wanted to learn how to sing the songs and to know their meaning.

So, a translation-listening-transcription journey began for me and I acquired a lot of vocabulary collocations, expressions and also new sounds . I considered this as the crucial moment for the learning of English in my  life. After this, I had some other motivations such as communicating with people from Asia and helping my friends translate their homeworks.

When I finished high school I had to chose what career to study. I did not want to become a teacher, but I loved English, so I decided to give it a try and began my journey as an EFL student-teacher. I must admit that I loved working with little children and I enjoyed a lot my work while I was still living in Neiva. Children brought an unimaginable joy to my life, and for that I am grateful. I was not only the teacher, but also the person who was in charge of them, I was the one they cried with and the person they huged at the beggining and the end of their day. 

Things are different now. I work at a public school and it is not a very nice nor a healthy environment. I think I do not understand teens and they are interested in everything except learning (specially in the place I am working). Of course there are some exceptions and some kids who despite of being poor or living far away, they like the class and work.

August 2018 - La Pirámide - Archaeological Place - Cauca, Colombia

My motivation is to let my students know that they can do things, that they can learn at least the basic words to sell their products (many buy and sell coffee) or at least teach them that they need to be responsible not only in my class, but in life. I don't feel very confortable now because of the many things I have to see and deal with daily, but I keep  working on my attitude and my teaching. My students deserve someone who loves their job. I like being a teacher, I am just taking my time for everything to fall into its place and fit.

Carolina S.