It’s always worth giving learning a try, even if you’re not confident. What have you got to lose?
Luciana joined ACL when she returned to England with her family and wanted to update her language skills. Over the years she has travelled a lot, living in the US and Brazil.
Updating skills
If you don’t use a language regularly you become rusty. That can happen to anyone, and that is what happened to Luciana. When she moved to Warwickshire with her husband and two sons, she enrolled on an ESOL course with ACL to help get her confidence back. Her tutor, Kate, was really supportive and encouraging. In fact, she thought Luciana’s written work was so good that she recommended her to join a Creative Writing course, as well!
Luciana was experiencing a mental block at the time. She just couldn’t seem to begin writing anything, whether it was in English or in Portuguese. She was worried about sharing her writing with native speakers, too. But she talked to the Creative Writing tutor on the phone, and decided to give it a go.
Boosting confidence
Once Luciana had overcome her fears the course was a real boost. She made lasting connections with people she might not have met otherwise. She is still attending ESOL classes, and feels a lot more comfortable about expressing herself verbally and in writing. The Creative Writing course helped her write more descriptively, too.
Exploring
Luciana is a creative person. She believes it is important to keep learning new things, and not to become stuck. She likes exploring a range of subjects to see where they lead, rather than sticking to just one thing. For Luciana, learning is a bit of an adventure! Her next travel project will be to visit Brazil and see her 86 year old mother, who she hasn’t seen since lockdown. She’s keen to keep exploring opportunities that fit around work and family -taking beautiful photographs for Instagram and her blog, writing, travelling and generally living life to the fullest. Luciana’s advice to anyone thinking about learning again is ‘give it a go! What have you got to lose?’
Find out more about Personal development and life skills courses through Adult Community Learning.