From V8 to Roxette: my English journey

The school in Florida

It was the late ’80s.

My parents were divorced. I was living with my mom and my sister in a tiny house in a town near Buenos Aires City called Victoria, located in the northern area of Buenos Aires Province. I was quite young—just about ten years old—when I asked my mother to enroll me in an English class.

Those were difficult times. She was working hard for the money, and we weren’t getting any help from my dad.
Still, she didn’t hesitate to look for a course. You know, moms are like superheroes when they’re in charge, and somehow, she managed to find an affordable school where I could get started.
And off I went!

I began learning English in a state-run community school in Florida, a nearby town. I had to take a bus that ran along the Panamericana Highway, and it would get me there in no more than half an hour.
I remember loving the idea of learning a second language, it became my little world. We used a book called V8, and the following year, one called Snap!. I remember reading the dialogues, looking at the drawings and pictures. I was living my own adventure.
My English books were like a window into a new world, a new and different culture.
I still remember Nick, Sam, and the dog Oliver. I also remember those imaginary English neighborhoods: detached houses, front gardens, white fences, and children playing and smiling.

A few years later, I moved to my grandmother’s house in San Fernando. My mom had bought a plot of land and was building a house for the three of us—my sister, herself, and me. While the new house was under construction, they sent me to live with my grandma temporarily.

At the time, I was in secondary school and decided I wanted to take my English lessons elsewhere. The school I had been attending in Florida, although it offered English classes, wasn’t really focused on language learning. It was more of a community center, with a wide variety of workshops: knitting, cooking, computing, painting—you name it.
So I started looking for a real language institute.

I grabbed the telephone book and checked the Yellow Pages, where people used to advertise different businesses and services. That’s when I found a private English school in San Isidro, a wealthy town nearby. I called them and asked for an appointment. I was fourteen by then. My mom said she’d also phone them to see if she could afford it. I was thrilled when she told me she could.
And that’s how I became a student at the English centre in San Isidro. I loved going there. I remember taking a placement test, and after that, they placed me in 3rd Year Adults!

Then came 1991, a special year that would change my world forever.
I wasn’t doing so well at school. It was that time in life when you start listening to music, reading teen magazines, and daydreaming. One day, I was listening to the radio when they played the number-one song at the time: It Must Have Been Love by Roxette.
Oh my God! What a song. What a voice. I didn’t even know who she was, but I wanted to find out.
That’s how I discovered Roxette: a Swedish duo, a guy and a girl, singing in English.
I remember copying their lyrics into a notebook I had bought. I also pasted magazine cutouts with their pictures. It became my hobby.
And that’s how I became more and more interested in learning English.
I still remember all those lyrics by heart. 

Crazy.

To sum up, today I'm an English teacher who owes so much to his mom. She always gave me everything she could so I could become someone in life. She never let circumstances define my future. 

Her love and strength did.