The Perfect Fit

THE PERFECT FIT

“Do I really need to learn English? Is it necessary?” I thought. But I will never forget the day I asked my classmate if I could join their group thinking it was a team project, to find out actually it wasn’t a group task. I was so embarrassed.

In the beginning I didn’t want to study English. I had a friend and she worked hard. She kept explaining how important it was to learn English as New Zealanders speak English. However I couldn’t deny it any longer, my dreaded English exam mark, BELOW AVERAGE!!!!! I knew something had to change, otherwise I would be ruining my chances of good education opportunities.

At the start of my journey I couldn’t find a friend from New Zealand or from a different country. I asked my friend from China (who also spoke Mandarin) to speak in English with me. We used our break and lunch as an opportunity to practice free talk. We also had a competition, the first person to slip up and speak Mandarin was punished by either singing out loud or to communicate with complete strangers in the school. This embarrassed us and we learnt faster this way to NOT speak in our mother tongue.

I decided to make a list and thought about how I could improve all areas of my English skills.
I read books and at the end of the book I did a small quiz to find out my weak areas and then studied it again until I got all the questions in the quiz correct. This was a year-long project.


My speaking and writing skills were improved by utilising the school environment and materials. For example I was exposed to English in my classroom (the teacher and classmates) and the school had a helpful website to help us improve our writing skills.

In June 2020, my dad was watching a famous Taiwan youtuber who promoted Amazing Talker. He did some digging and asked me if I’d like to learn English using Amazing Talker. I agreed as this website has so many English teachers that could help me with my conversational skills. I also considered that I could use this for another language such as Japanese. I had 5 teachers to start with, all with their own strengths. However, my dad told me it was time to make a decision. I HAD TO CHOOSE MY PERFECT FIT!

In December I chose Teacher Charlotte, because I really enjoy her lessons. We played lots of fun games. I can learn and have fun at the same time. Teacher Charlotte doesn’t only teach English skills she also teaches me life skills. For example, how to be more creative. Sharks VS Humans, and more.

During teacher Charlotte's class we have done so many topics. One of my favourite is Murder in the classroom. At the start of this class, I had to understand the scene and setting of the murder that took place. After that teacher Charlotte asked me questions just focussing on the suspects pictures and the clue from the opening statement. Then we made a table for the suspects that included the suspects appearance, personality and any clues. I had to eliminate who I thought was a “red herring”.
After this class I made my own muder case for teacher Charlotte to solve. I can learn how to make a table about information in the story, how to describe the criminal and learn how to solve problems. I felt excited and wanted to know who the criminal was, it’s like being a detective.

Teacher Charlotte is an industrious teacher. Every class has a topic to work on, she made a lot of marvelous ppt slides for us to look at. She prepares for our lesson which makes me feel that she does care about her students. I really like her to write down what I did well and areas to improve, because that gives me more direction of what I need to work on. I can learn lots of new vocabulary each lesson, and she always explains them very well.

The difference between me arriving in New Zealand and me today, on arrival I couldn’t speak or communicate with others unless they spoke Mandarian 2 and a half years later I have friends from 5 different countries (Serbia, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, Japan) and I can communicate in English thanks to Teacher Charlotte.