Jose A. Estremera Soto - Language Timeline

By chimpi

  • 0-5 years

    0-5 years
    I didn’t speak English, understood, and more.

  • 5-9 years

    I knew some vocabulary words (academic words learned at school) but without context.

  • 10-12 years

    I could speak some sentences with a lot of code switching and some code mixing, with a little fluency. I also could construct a paragraph and I could understand some short stories at school.

  • 13-15 years (Middle School)

    I knew vocabulary words, could understand some academic language, but I didn’t practice in the school because I didn’t have the opportunity to practice the social and basic language at school. I also didn’t have friends and families that spoke to me in English, or English TV programs. I could speak a little bit much better but that was it. I was more a receptive speaker.

  • 16-18 years (High School)

    When I was in high school, I understood more academic language, phonics, a little semantic and more aspects of the language but not as good as the social language. I knew some basic words but I couldn’t establish a conversation face to face with someone.

  • 19-22 years (first years in University)

    I had a lot of problems with the books because almost all of my Science books were in English. However I finished the studies in Science. I also had some problems with the English Literature class and with the conversation laboratories.

  • 23-26 (University years)

    I was doing better with the social language because I had a girlfriend that came through the exchange program from Wisconsin. I practiced with her conversations in English and I started to have better fluency. I also went a couple of times to visit her parents and I was speaking better. They understood me a lot. I had less fear about the language.

  • 27-30

    I was having some English classes, practice more, work in the library, read some interesting books in English, and sometimes I tried to speak with some people who use to speak in English.

  • 31-now

    31-now
    I think that I’m not a complete balanced bilingual. I can speak, understand more, read, and write in English but not with complete proficiency like a monolingual English speaker. However I know that I’m much better than before. I plan to write songs in English, and more. I’m still working in that.