In Turkey, English classes are taught from grade 4 and onwards but once students complete grade 8, they sit for an exam which determines their high school and eventually uni path. I wasn't doing very well for all of my subjects. I got 320/500 for highschool entrance exams. I didnt qualify for a nice school where english is taught very well. When I told people that I stayed in Australia when I was 5, almost everyone changed their approach to me, thinking that I could fluently speak English while I couldn't. In spite of all these difficulties, I had a very nice English teacher in high school. If i love English today, all credit goes to his high ability of teaching English. At the end of year 9, he told me that I should have taken a career path in English studies. Of course, difficult circumstances of teachers in Turkey made this choice impossible and I chose science branch for my further education at the end of year9. The only attempt I did towards improving my English was limited with video games.
It's really strange. I came to Australia to visit my grandparents. I had nothing to stay here. After all, I had no connection to this country besides my grand family and my Australian passport. As I said early, I first came to Australia when I was 2 years old and had a chance to go to kindergarten when I was 5. My mum told me that I was able to speak English like a 5 year old Aussie kid. When I went back to Turkey in 1997, I gave up speaking English...Although I remember my mum trying to speak English to me in Turkey, my ability to speak English wasn't far more than 5 sentences and of course swear words
In June 2010, I suddenly decided to study in Australia as my chance of getting into a university was impossible in Turkey. I had no idea how I was going to do it in Australia either. I continued studying English at a language centre for 6 months. Even though I couldn't speak two sentences in June, I left the language centre with high aims. When I started y11, I was lucky again to have such an awesome teacher. He enlightened the way I see my life with his thoughts. While every single relatives in Australia was considering me just like themselves from 1980s, I thought, hey I'm going to be different. Everyone was asking whether I was going back to Turkey again because none of them thought I could achieve my goals in Australia.
So lastly, Don't be scared. You can do this. No matter what everyone thinks or says, you have to promise yourself as I did. Woaw I haven't written this long in English after the exam
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