Smart Girl from Azerbaijan: Fatima

This is my first post on my English journey. I have heard a very famous quote 'nothing late to start!'. I believe it. I am 36 years old when start to learn English seriously. Actually, I have known English since I was in junior high school. I remember when my English teacher taught me how to introduce myself.  "Hello, I want to introduce myself. My name is Farid Suryanto. You can call me Farid. I'm 13 years old. Thank you!". That is the first English sentence I used. It was hilarious!

At the time I had difficulty pronouncing English words. The word 'I am' should be pronounced 'ai yam' in Bahasa. Even though the word 'ai yam' is sound like 'ayam' in Bahasa that it means 'chicken'.  It was hard for me to remember how I should pronounce English words.

Today I realized that the most important to learn English is practicing it. Actually learning grammar did not help more without practicing to speak.

I have tried to found friends from abroad. I search any website to get international forums in language exchange. I found any forums but I can not get friends. I choose one of them and I have tried to send the message but most of them have not responded.

Finally, I get Tandem. It is an app for connecting people around the globe. Tandem has two main rules including defining your native language and your targeted language. Tandem will give you people who are matched with you.  For example, if you are native in English and will learn Indonesian then tandem will give you Indonesian native people who will learn English. It is an awesome app!

Like any other similar app, I choose a person and send a message. Few of them want to replay. Perhaps my conversation is not quite interesting. I have tried to see how is an interesting way to open the conversation. That is a more challenging thing for me to make a warm conversation with another person that has a different culture.

Tandem release Parties feature. It is an awesome feature and I very like it. We can talk in real practice to speak English. You can create your own party and everyone can join. The parties will connect you with people from other countries. 

I choose the party randomly, especially the small member party to get a good opportunity to speak. I stop at the one party, rising my hand, and the host added me. She asks me 'How are you' and I said 'I am fine'.  A very common conversation. It indicates that my English conversation is really bad! But there is something interesting for me. She gives enthusiasm, with her cheery sound, to hear my bad pronunciation. 

She is Fatima from Azerbaijan. She loves reading books. She has taught me the word 'hallo' in Azerbaijan. She still struggles to get a TESOL certificate. She is my first friend from abroad. Thanks for the friendship. Allah will do the best for you if you give the best for others.