Wondering about English

Until I began to teach, I actually never thought of grammar rules or categories... English just came naturally to me. I learnt to use the language since I was very little. I used to play using English, even if my friends didn't know how to... It is a bit weird, I know, but there was something indescribable about using a strange language with a different melody when creating different scenarios and characters...

I've always been enchanted by language and melody. My mom used to read poetry to me every night before bedtime... with her reading I learnt there were people who created fantastic stories as I tried to do in my own games. I started to believe that language was much more than just a communication. Learning English gave me the opportunity to reinforce my belief. I could watch Disney and Warner Bother movies and get their jokes… actually laugh at them. Although Bugs Bunny is quite funny in Spanish, his character is much more fun in English. Understanding different cultures (like Bugs Bunny's or Mickey's) through English was almost as natural as learning the language, and I realized that my own culture, my own way of expression was something to be treasured. Perhaps that's why I studied literature and I just had an epiphany through this blog, who would have guessed? (hahaha)

Of course, the first English book that captured me was The Catcher in the Rye. I was at that age... that terrible age. But it was Shakespeare who won my heart. I read Hamlet in high school, and at first it was hard, but somehow I fell deeply in love with his iambic pentameter (yet another epiphany... I'm a geek). However, it was until my university years that I understood that each language has a defined structure that gives a unique melody to each story, character, theme or conflict. For this reason I began my long journey with Poetry... If I think about it, I mean really make myself remember why I decided to teach what I teach, to study what I did and keep doing so, I can affirm that it was learning about different cultures what pushed me towards literary studies. I couldn't have done that if I hadn't learnt English.

It's a bit weird to write about these sort of things and not have my mind wondering about... and perhaps those who read my "stream of consciousness" will think that I have made no sense at all, but I do wish that just one of you accompanies me in this sort of wondering...