How Language Taught Me Independence

In Myanmar culture, there is a saying “Parents are the first and foremost teachers in life.” I believe, parents shape our childhoods which will later reflect our interest and talent in adulthood. Language is the first skill we must learn in order to communicate with our society from the moment we are born. We naturally learn our first language from our family at home. On the other hand, our second language is usually learned at school starting from kindergarten and it can be more challenging for us because it is not used as naturally in our daily life.

My first language is Burmese. I have to learn English as my second language because in my country, all public and private schools teach English as a compulsory subject. I was studying in public school from kindergarten to grade-9. Unfortunately, Linguistics is my weakness. As a developing country, we cannot invest enough budget in the education sector to provide proper teacher training, facilities, funding and updated curricula. I did not receive a high-quality education that could help me improve my weaknesses in school, so my mother arranged private tutoring at home to help me improve my English and learn alongside other children from around the world.

Life was a bed of roses until my father passed away in 2019 when I was just 13. As my father was the major breadwinner in our family, I noticed that my mom suffered a lot of stress from losing spouse and family business. My mom was so busy with her work that I had to try to tackle every problem about my education and daily life while helping my mother.

After the COVID 19 pandemic, I started attending a private school, the teaching style of which is quite different from the government school I previously attended. I began to realize the importance of self-study and independent skill. This realization helped me to get scholarships – 15% at Education Creation Corner for grade 9 and 10 reduce the financial burden on my mom.After that, my life suddenly changed in 2023. My mom decided to send me to a private school in Thailand. I got a 40% scholarship offer from Bromsgrove International School, Thailand for grade 11 and 12. Even with the bursary, attending Bromsgrove International School was a difficult decision because the school is expensive. I suggested finishing high school in my home country to reduce expenses but my mother believed that studying abroad would provide me with better opportunities and insisted that I attend boarding school at BIST.

I traveled to Bangkok with other students who would also be studying at BIST and their parents. My mom cannot follow me because she was busy. We arrived two days before school started. They kindly helped me but at that time, everything felt unfamiliar. I did not know where I was, what I should do or how to navigate Bangkok using public transportation. I still remember that I was so afraid of missing my first day of school that I did not sleep at all my first night at the boarding. The next morning, everything felt overwhelming. I did not know where my tutor room was, how to access my school email, how to check my schedule, where my classrooms were or even what “SIC” stood for. I noticed that the language barrier was the main reason for this.

For the first two months, I struggled to respond and took a little bit of time to understand when teachers, staff and classmates asked a complex question. I had a lot of things to answer in Burmese but I couldn’t find them in English. I stayed silent and avoided eye contact with people. I remember crying in the bathroom everyday for the first two months after school. One day, I decided to stop hiding. I had joined an ESL class. My teacher gave me some excellent advice which focuses on catching the main ideas from teachers and friends instead of trying to understand every single word. I spent my free time in the library and common room to read a lot of books and practice my speaking and listening with someone. Fortunately, my teachers andfriends were very friendly and helpful to me to improve my English skill. Because of their help, my English improved and I became more confident in communication. At that moment, I felt “knowledgeable enough” which wasn’t a grade on a paper.

My journey shows something that’s true for a lot of people. For people who move to acountry and students from other countries there is always a worry about speaking well in a second language just to be treated the same as everyone else. People in society want us to fit in completely. It is actually the hard work and struggles that make us stronger. The struggle to speak a language is a big part of this. Immigrants and international students have to do this every day just to be seen as equal.

I believe that those kinds of challenges taught us confidence in communication, independence and management of time and money. Although my language journey has been difficult, it became a bridge for me into a stronger, more determined student who is committed to using education to create a better future for myself and my family and who is ready to begin the next chapter of my life at a college in New York. To sum up, we can transform difficulties into stepping stones for progress. These challenges serve as a bridge to higher achievement, helping us surpass our perceived boundaries and unlock our full potential.