A looooong letter. I want to make new friends!

[MrROOS]

Good day everybody, specially Laura, Alan, Yankee and Torsten. My name is Oscar. I´m from Colombia. I live in a small city named Villavicencio. Right in this moment, I´m working as an English teacher for kids under 11 years old.
When I was a kid I never said "I want to be an English teacher", even more, I didn´t speak in English. I thought that if you wanted to speak in English all you would have to do is to pronounce the word beginning with the last letter and finishing with the first one. For example, "house" in spanish means "casa", but I thought that the way to say "casa" in English was "asac"... hahahahaha !!! Well, I was about 7 or 8 years old and we (me and my classmates) never received English classes at school. Nowadays, even children at kindergarden must receive English classes.

OK, when I began studying at high school I finally received English classes. I was 10 years old and I don´t know how it happened but I discovered that I was good at English. I love rock music in English and when I saw that I was able to read and understand the lyrics of the songs I liked I just said " I love English!", and I always wanted to learn more and more. I can say that I was always one step in front of my classmates because I was everytime talking to my teachers about grammar, about new topics, asking for new ways to say something in English, and so on.
When I was 18 I finished high school, but I didn´t have money to study at the University ( I had to pay for my last 3 years of high school. I was good at English, but I was bad at the rest !!! and I didn´t want my mom to be spending her money in a boy like me, so I began working at a supermarket. I had to pack the groceries of the clients. It was a nice experience because I met people from the U.S. and I could practice my poor English with them, I met Mr. Robert O`Bob, his wife Lydia; Mr. Thomas Rachel and a boy named Jeremy. Everytime I saw an american I said to him/her (In ENglish, of course) : "Excuse me, do you need some help with your groceries? And they said : "Wow, do you speak English? And I had a new friend that day ). OK, I told you that I had finished high school and I didn´t know what to do after that. One day in february (Here in Colombia, school year begins in February and finishes in November, students enjoy summer vacation in the middle of school year) a friend of mine asked me if I would like to work as an English teacher at a high school. Well, I was not working at that moment and I didn´t have money for the University, so I said "OK, let´s do it". But I didn´t have any experience, even worse : I didn´t learn too much studying at night, but I wanted the job, so I accepted.
I had to teach English to boys and girls from 10 to 16 years old. With the younger students things were easy : Verb To be - Simple present tense - Comparisons with adjectives - Simple past tense. But with the older students things were a little bit hard : Conditional sentences - Passive voice - Indirect speech - My English was not the best ( Actually, it is not, yet ).I made a lot of mistakes. I remember that I taught "Can in the future" with sentences such as : I will can study tomorrow !!! Oh, my God !!! But, I told you...I stopped learning English when I began studying at night ( I even had to help my English teacher during those "dark" years), besides, I was only 18 years old and my pupils were 17 or even older than me !!!

Ok, I found out my English was very very poor and I began studying English again. I went to an institute and I had a very good teacher, Xin Li, from China. but there were others not that good. I remember a teacher who didn´t know the difference between "I have enough money" and "I am rich enough" ( The topic is : enough with nouns or adjectives) If you asked : "Hey, teacher, what if I say I have money enough?" That teacher would say : "It is not correct" "Why not?" "Because it is NOT correct, period.". A terrible teacher, and I didn´t want to be a teacher like that.

All right, I want to finish this post. The point is that I began working as an English teacher at the age of 18. English has given me a lot of things : I got a job teaching English, I was also a Disc Jockey at a radio Station because I could say "This is a nice song about bla, bla, bla, bla... And I have also worked as a translator... When I was single, I even got an "Internet girlfriend", a pretty girl from Bock, Iowa. (Love you, Melissa ). Thanks to English I have met wonderful people (like you, of course!).

Nowadays, I´m a married man. I have a wonderful wife and 2 precious sons, David (In my profile pic) and Santiago. I´m finally studying at the University. But I´m studying to be a lawyer. When I finish, I will work as a lawyer or as an English teacher...But I want to look at myself working as a lawyer in international affairs, using English, of course. I have to receive English classes at the University, but I only attend the days of the tests.

However, I still need one more thing to be completely happy. I have dreamed in English about a thousand situations. I dream of people I have never seen in my life and they speak to me in English, and I answer, and I ask, and we laugh. When I wake up I think I was an English native speaker in a past life. My big frustration is that I have never traveled to another country. Sometimes I feel I´m a prisoner in my own country.
Several years ago, I got an American Visa (Something really difficult here in Latin America, specially if you are young and single and you want to travel alone, but God gave me that chance), however, I never traveled, why? well, I told you I´d travel alone because I was really alone and in the end I was afraid. I think I´m the only one with an American Visa who didn´t take that airplane. I asked for the Visa two more times, but they said "No". When I got my visa, the president was Mr. Bill Clinton. I got a "No" twice with Mr. George Bush. I think Mr. Barack Obama is the one who will give me a Visa again. I love Democrats !!! I think I was a democrat in a past life !!! hehehehe.
However, when I got my visa I was single and I wanted to do a lot of things : Eating a hot dog on the street. Screaming at a stadium. Jogging at central park in NY. Screaming at a rock concert of Journey, Survivor or Bon Jovi. Travelling by bus from Miami to Seattle. Kissing an american girl. Talking to any person on my way...
If I got a new visa my plans wouldn´t be the same : Magic kingdom and Disneyland with my kids ... and kissing Cinderella or a big plastic minnie !!!
But, on the other hand : Who said America is the only destination ??? I love rock and pop music and most of my favorite bands are from the UK : New Order, Depeche mode, Simply Red, The Outfield, Def Leppard, Pet Shop Boys, U2, The Cranberries...Well, I think I can also try to get an English Visa or ... what about INXS, Kylie Minogue, Mondo Rock, Midnight Oil and Men at Work ? Australia is a nice place, too !!! Hey, Bryan Adams, Heart, Asia and Alias are in Canada, Oh my God, Niagara falls wait for me !!! Well, I also love Reggae music, I could go to visit Bob Marley´s tomb in Jamaica, hehehe, !!!

OK, this is really the end of this post. I have shared a lot of my life with you. I´m here in this forum because I know I have and I want to improve my English. Some days ago, I needed a new topic for students of 11º grade ( I work at a high school but only on saturdays, my pupils are adult people who work on weekdays). And I remembered a topic named "inversion".
Believe or not, there are many teachers who say : "What??? Inversion??? I don´t know what that is!!!". I knew there was a topic with that name ... But I didn´t know what it was about. I have never seen that topic on any English text. Thanks God I found this site and I read and learnt a little about it. Thanks, Alan and Yankee.

I made a worksheet for my pupils and I tried to do my best teaching that topic.

I imagine I will be here asking a lot about grammar, and of course, If I can, I will be trying to help all of those who have a question. I love to explain things very slowly and very carefully.
I hope I will make a lot of good friends here. I know I will.

God bless you, my friends. Thanks for your time reading this post. My e-mail is : odagos@hotmail.com

Oscar

[Muzil_1999]

who is it in your picture? is it in your childhood?

[MrROOS]

Good day, dear Muzil.

[MrROOS]

Good day, dear Muzil. I really hope you are doing fine ! Well, that´s not me in my childhood, but most of my relatives say the little boy looks like me. The baby in the picture is my younger son David. I love his face in this picture. He was really surprised, but I can´t remember why ! Hehehehe.
Have a nice day, Muzil. Keep in touch.

Xie Xie and Zaijian

OSCAR

[Muzil_1999]

haha, you understand some chinese! Thank you!

so happy to see your son!

[MrROOS]

Oh, yes !!! But I only know those 2 phrases. I used to work as a translator for a friend who buys motorcycles and spare parts from China. I met a lot of nice people and they taught me these phrases, they also taught me "Wo shi Oscar" (I am Oscar), but I don´t know if I´m writing that in a correct way.

OK, see you soon, my friend.

Oscar