Confidence overcomes obstacles

(This essay placed first in a writing contest sponsored by 51Talk among its online English language teachers for students in China. To know more about how to be an English e-educator, visit 51Talk.com/ph.)

During my first few weeks in 51Talk, I had a low-level student with a bad stutter. He was studying English to prepare for his move to Australia. His stutter made him nervous about moving.

Stuttering normally gets worse when a person is nervous. My student stuttered a lot during our first lesson, but that did not stop him from taking more lessons since he was determined to improve his speech.

The topic in one of our sessions made him very interested—it was about food. He started to talk and went on and on, even sharing stories.

I noticed that when he was telling his stories, there was no stuttering. He was speaking clearly and, more importantly, fluently.

We had lessons every single night. I made it a point to find a way to learn about what he liked and start conversations based on what I learned about him.

Food, games and culture were the topics he was most confident with. When we talked about those things, he spoke fluently, with no stutter.

I always reminded him not to be afraid to make mistakes, not to be afraid of stuttering because he could overcome it.

He kept that in mind and did very well in all our lessons. He was so good that it got to a point where the lessons were too easy for him. So we started learning idioms and synonyms, not easy topics for low-level learners.

One day, he said he felt that his level assessment was low only because he was too nervous and kept stuttering during his free trial lesson.

After a month of lessons, he told me he was ready to go to Australia. He said I was able to help him overcome his fear of moving. He arrived in Australia in March and is now taking his master’s degree.

Being a teacher in 51Talk made me realize that confidence was one of the keys to overcoming any obstacle, whether it was as simple as not knowing the correct pronunciation of English words, or as difficult as a stutter.

Learning a new language is not easy. It requires determination, discipline and hard work.

Only you know what you are capable of. All you have to do is believe in yourself and everyone will believe in you. It all starts with you.