Diễm Quỳnh

11/12/2021
Describe the first time you used a foreign language to communicate.
You should say:
who you communicated with
what the situation was
what you said (or wrote)
and explain how you felt during this experience

I have been learning English for a long time, but I haven’t had many chances to practice
speaking English with native speakers. To the best of my recollection, the first time I
used English to communicate was 2 years ago when I was spending my summer break at
my aunt’s home in Ho Chi Minh city.
At that time, I was shopping around with my cousin outside the Vincom mall, which is
not far from my place. Suddenly, a foreigner came up to me and asked for directions to
an address. Honestly, I felt a bit puzzled since she spoke quite quickly for me to catch
everything. A first thought came across my mind that maybe I should say ‘Sorry. I don’t
know’ and just leave. However; I still decided to help her. Despite having spoken English
with some errors and used body language a lot to explain the directions, me and my
cousin could finally showed her the way to address with the assistance of google maps.
When I got home after that, it stroke me as a surprise that I met her again at my aunt’s
home. From my aunt, I knew that this girl is her friend’s daughter from England. We also
became friend the following days. At first, I told her that I didn’t have enough experience
of speaking English but she didn’t seem to have any problem with my language barrier.
During that summer, we spent all time together and visited many places in Ho Chi Minh
city. At present, my English has been improved a lot and I still keep in touch with her,
whenever have freetime, we always share our daily life with each other through social
media.
I realize that English plays a crucial role in our life as we are now living in a
globalization world and English is becoming a dominant language. Therefore, having a
good command of English can bring you more opportunities in life.