English Place - Intrerviews

ESL-English Place

BILINGUAL INTERVIEWS

An Interview with a true "Bilingual" -

Sr. Raul Martinez

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Introduction
Martinez lecturing for us
The Interview
The Big Question
You can do it if you want to

The fun of rewards, rewarding

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Special
Note

This interview is given in great detail in order to illustrate the practical methods that Sr. Martinez used to learn English by himself, without schools, teachers or tutors. He is totally fluent now in a self-taught language, as well as makes his living using this second language!

Introduction

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			Sr. Raul Martinez is a self-taught true bilingual business executive. His profession requires him to understand and use several languages. He never had any quality or organized type of formal language training, and he learned almost totally by himself all he knows about languages. He tells us he was able to do this because he both loved to learn, and that he had to learn English in order to reach his present professional status. Today he lives and works in a large city in Mexico, but his work requires that he travel world-wide. He loves his work and his life, and he continues to study English, as he says, just "...to be more perfect" in his ability to speak with English-speaking people. We are privileged that Sr. Martinez agreed to give ESL-English Place an interview in which tells his story of learning the English language almost alone -- how he finally met his goal "...to be more perfect" in English. By the way, Sr. Martinez speaks more eloquently in English than most college graduates whose native language is English. And, according to most listeners, he speaks with no accent whatever. Read this amazing and fascinating true story of someone who made his dreams come true by learning a second language almost entirely by himself!

Raul Martinez lecturing and presenting ESL awards

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Special note: the pictures with this article cover Sr. Martinez in a recent seminar for ESL students in an American school. He judged a contest there, and also awarded both prizes and graduation certificates to a very enthusiastic ESL class listening in rapt amazement to his story about himself, in which he described approximately the same events as he brings to us here in the interview which follows.

Raul Martinez, explaining self-learning languages to an ESL class

The Interview

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ESL. Raul, you are known in your company and among friends to be truly bilingual. You are able to converse fluently in English with anyone on almost subject. And, you are able to do this without any serious formal education in English. Most people just don't understand how this can be done, and still don't believe it when you prove you can do it!. The purpose of this interview is give anyone interested in English literacy a story of encouragement. Tell us how you did this. Tell us about your amazing success in teaching yourself English. RAUL:: Well, the first time I was interested in learning English was many years ago -- it was when I was quite young. I used to listen to music on the radio, and I always liked the American songs, the songs that were in English. That's when I began to give attention to the English language. ESL: How old were you when you decided that you really liked English? RAUL: First as a young child, then when I was a young teenager I began listening to the songs more seriously. ESL: Well, did you also have access to television at that time in Mexico? RAUL: No, it was only radio then, and all the stations were in Spanish except for the songs. And then I found some radio stations broadcasting in English from towns on the U. S. border. It was all very interesting as I listened to the songs, and all this came together toreally get my attention when I began listening to the American DJ's ["disc jockeys"].

		...ESL students listening in complete amazement to Raul Martinez lecturing in both Spanish and English about his experience in learning English by himself
		ESL: How about other forms of media, like movies in English, at this time in your life?
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		RAUL: I remember a friend of mine gave me a book in English when I was about 15, and I kept trying to read it again and again, and I just couldn't do it. Then about that time I remember -- and I remember this very well, it's very clear in my mind -- there was a cartoon "Heckle and Jeckle" that had subtitles -- it was in English with Spanish subtitles. And that, I guess, was the real beginning of English study for me. ESL: This was a movie cartoon? RAUL: This was on TV, on my neighbor's TV, because we didn't have one. ESL: Let's see, now, were you actually born in Mexico? RAUL: Yes, I was, in a small town called "Linares" about two hours drive-time from Monterrey, the capital city of our State, Nuevo Leon. Then I moved to Montemorelos, about an hour closer to Monterrey. ESL: What about your school environment? Did you have the opportunity to have any classwork in English in grade school? RAUL: Grade school is about the same in Mexico as it is in the U.S. There are grades 1 through 6, and it's called "primaria". When I was at this level I never had any contact with English. ESL: What's the next level of public school in Mexico? RAUL: It's called "secundaria", and it is something like Junior High School in America. Then comes "preparitoria", and at that time it lasted about two years. Further education was at the colleges and universities, usually called your "carrera", or career track, and this level carries specific names such as lawyer, engineer, doctor, etc., and lasts 5 or 6 years. Today the "preparatoria" often includes another year which makes the school experience in Mexico a little more simliar now to that found in the USA. ESL: Did you get any English training in "secundaria"? RAUL: English was in the syllabus for training, but it was really basic. ESL: The general idea about English training in Mexican public schools is that it never was very well done, and that even today there is not much English offered to most students, except those in private schools. RAUL: Well, in my case, it was very basic, to say the least, very basic. Not much emphasis at all. If I remember correctly, all we did was some grammar, and in a very rudimentary way. Certainly I learned something there, but not much. ESL: This time of your life would have been about the 8th and 9th years of your schooling. Did you ever have any other kind of formal training in English? RAUL: Other than the very poor exposure in Junior High, which was so weak I can hardly remember what we did, the answer is "no", never. ESL: But it was also about this time that you developed a personal interest in learning English. RAUL: Yes, I just felt like I had to learn English, using one method or another to understand those songs and the books and newspapers I came across written in English. ESL: And you mentioned in our seminar with the ESL-English Place students that you found no other form of help in learning English, because of lack of money, as much as any other reason. RAUL: Yes, I never even considered going to a language school, because it was out of the question for me to pay for it. And it wasn't even possible for me to buy one of the self-help language course with tapes, either. This was a very "tight" time financially for everyone in Mexico. I had no money, and most other people didn't either up until maybe the l990's when the economy opened up for us a little. I started the university, as I wanted to be a doctor, but I hardly made my way into the second year when I had to forget further education in order to work and pay the bills. ESL: Well, you are keeping us in terrible suspense here! Please tell us, how did you accomplish your marvelous skill in the English language? RAUL: No, as I was telling the students, I never went to a school or used any kind of formal methods of language learning to acquire English. What I did was, well, there was this magazine called "Hit Parader", and I tried to buy this magazine whenever I could. ESL: Yes, it was an American magazine that is no longer available. RAUL: Yes, the rock magazines have taken over now. But the words to the songs popular then were written out in this magazine. Then I would find the music on record or on the radio and listen to the singers pronouncing these words. Then I would try to imitate what they were singing, and that became the basis of how I practiced and learned -- I would study the words, I would read them out loud again and again, and then listen more to the songs, and practice them. Eventually I was able to buy a lot of records, even hundreds of the old LP 33's, even some of the old 45 rpm's! and use them in this way. I would also read magazines and newspapers and my books in English out loud. This method always helped me the most. ESL: When did you begin to feel that you could really communicate in English? RAUL: I suppose this was about the time I finished "prepa" (prepatoria, or Mexican High School). I was about 18 and 19 at that time, and I was attempting to go to the University. I knew I wasn't fluent in English, but I also knew I had the "ear" for it, because I was beginning to understand almost everything I heard in English even though I couldn't speak it that well. I also tried to communicate with everybody I could who would speak English with me, and usually I was able to make out most of the words. ESL: So when do you feel that you got past that "second language" barrier that everyone who studies a language worries about so much? When did it occur to you that you felt you could really use English? RAUL: It was about the time I had to quit my University studies. Some of my studies used a lot of English, and I could usually master that. Then I also began translating the other studies in my curriculum into English for practice. This was when the turning point came. It worked. I could now use English. The translating, looking up things in the dictionaries, relating all of this to my actual academic studies pulled it all together. I had a very nice dictionary in Spanish to English, and I also used a completely English dictionary. I felt like I was finally bilingual in English in a basic way about the time I was 20, after about two years doing all this kind of practice at the University. ESL: I am not sure you will remember this, but when I met you in Mexico it was about 5 years after you had left the University and you had already begun your career as a bilingual executive. I remember well telling you on the spot that I actually thought you were an American. This was at a Christmas reception party, and I had overheard you talking with someone else nearby, when within moments I was introduced to you personally. I will never forget how amazed I was at this experience, because at that time I was studying intensive Spanish at a school, and you seemed much better at English without any schooling that I was at Spanish with some training! RAUL: At that time I was really working to listen to every English speaker I could to develop the right accent.
			The Big Question
		ESL: Is it correct to say that your professional success has been almost totally dependent on your ability to speak English? That you would not be where you are today without your English skills, which means your livlihood as an executive in a major travel organization is dependent on your second langauge?
			You can do it if you want to
		RAUL: Yes, that is totally true. I have gotten to wherever I have gotten to because I speak English. There is no other way I could have made it without English, because I couldn't finish college and I had to find a place to work. My first work was in a bookstore library specializing in American products. My boss spoke beautiful English with a British accent, although she was from Brazil. Because of this I can now to go England, and shift into British with my memory of her coaching me in British way! I always try to adjust my accent to whatever country I happen to be visiting in my work. ESL: Raul, thank you so very much for giving us this interview! As you know, this interview will appear on the ESL-English Place website, and certainly it will give many, many people much encouragement to continue their efforts to learn English. You have proven that it can be done, and that a person can learn a language without waiting for a school to come into their life in order to make it happen. You have proven that when someone wants to do something badly enough, it can be done. RAUL: I certainly hope our discussion will help many people, and will encourage them to try to learn more and more on their own. I would say it is possible, and if you want to do it, then, you can do it!

The fun of rewards and rewarding

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