I'm feeling happier than I felt in years. After decades of obsessive immersion into the English language, some courses at the EOI and the EIM-UB, plus studying on my own and enjoying it every day, I finally gathered up my courage, went up to the exams and obtained an official certificate for the C1 level. I did it!
Learning a language is a never-ending story and quite an adventure. I remember when I seriously began with English. It was September 2002, and I was 23. I had never studied this language before, besides the EGB (primary school) little experience, which I guess had been a minimal attempt by the school to teach kids, though not being enough to reach an A1 level. After that, I went to High School, but somehow there I chose Italian as a secondary language instead of French or English. During that time, I became so very thirsty for it... but had still to wait. Finally, as I started at the University, I also began to study English at an EOI in Barcelona (the one in Drassanes).
It was the beginning of a love relationship with the English language, as I was finally starting to learn it properly. I was very motivated and kept a good pace in class. Very soon, I was reading literature in the original English for the first time, including those many novels which I had loved as a child yet only being Catalan or Spanish translations. It was fascinating... rescuing all the literature in English of my youth, re-discovered at last in its original language, plus I've been reading whatever would come into my hands during these years, and it's been a joy.
Since I started the immersion, the same has been happening with movies and music. I finally was able to watch (and not in VHS anymore) what cinema I had loved but only known before with dubbed audio or translated subtitles. I could also, from then on, hear distinctly and understand the lyrics of a song, etc.
In 2006, I went to London for the first time and spent a fortnight there. I went alone, but had some experiences talking to locals (and foreigners) at the hostel and around the city. Going there was my way of celebrating my joy with the English language. I even took the train to Oxford, and then Cambridge, willing to see those University towns. I remember sitting on a bench inside the Merton College, in the same space where somebody could have been lectured by Tolkien himself while the professor taught there. Such pilgrimages were just my attempts to wake some kind of epiphany in me that would make me feel more committed towards learning the language. Because the more you learn a language, the keener is the sense that you still don't know much of it, that there's a lot to learn.
Anyway... after three years since I had started, I obtained the First Certificate (B1 or Intermediate level) at the EOI in Barcelona. Later on, having studied on my own, I went up to the exams for the B2 (Upper-intermediate level) at the Girona EOI, and succeeded. Recently, this past July to be exact, I've finally coursed an online express modality at the EIM-UB, going up to final exams that I've passed. Therefore, I've officially acquired the C1, the Advanced level.
I feel so proud. I needed this. To think that now I have (officially) the same linguistical competence (not really, or is it so?) in English as in Catalan or Spanish, my native languages, is a satisfactory feeling after all this time and effort. Moreover, I encourage everyone to learn languages. The many the better (because it gets easier). It's never too late to begin that journey!
With love,
A.
