I’ve started to study English by myself, when I was about 15, because of Michael Jackson. He’s been my idol since 1991, and I really wanted to understand him and his music since I was a child. I used to use a Dictionary in order to find the meaning of each word in songs or in texts written by him. I was very patient, and that was one point that helped me a lot in the process of learning English by myself.
Actually, I can’t describe the techniques I used to learn it, because it was almost automatic for me to start understanding English after a period of hard work trying to translate texts, dialogues and songs, so I really can’t say exactly how I’ve achieved proficiency. One thing that I can say is that I started learning English through comparing patterns and observing the language structure, comparing it to Portuguese and trying to memorize rules, and I used to make lists of words in order to memorize them and their meanings. Another thing that helped me a lot was the fact that I would spend hours studying and memorizing every rule I could notice, the uses, tenses, etc. of the words. After having a good vocabulary, I started working on pronunciation, which was the hardest part of the process for me, because the only source I had was music, although I used a Pronunciation Dictionary, too. Despite of the difficulty, I could learn everything well, and I could enter UFMG and really start studying English. Today I’m a teacher at an English Course, and I’m really enjoying it, because I can improve my English more each day.