Me, Hulya and Sachie a true story

Me, Hulya and Sachie at brazilian bar , London, 2006

Life is so good to share with different people. When I arrived in the UK, nearly five years ago, I was really focused to learn English. I had a lot of ambitions in my journalism career, so it was the main reason why I changed Brazil for England.

But the question was: how can I start my life in another country? I went to school and like me there were some “friends” in the same situation; they came from across other continents.  At the time I thought it was fantastic because before that, I had contact only with Brazilian people in Brazil. And my classmates were completely opposite to the stereotypes I had created in my mind – in my “small mind”.

Me, Hulya and Karla - from Peru, at School in Finsbury Park

It’s hard to remember now afterwards, but I think at that time nobody in the class could speak English very well. We started like babies from the beginning, learning the first words, the first steps… and it was a funny situation because you knew that each other had a good education, a degree in our countries but here, we were completely  lost….like blind people, deaf and mute.  We were born here at the age we arrived - in my case, 29 years old.

Can you imagine yourself going out with “friends” without speaking a full sentence? Can you imagine having the focus to try to understand something that you are sure is impossible to understand?  Have you put yourself in a situation that someone asks you something and you have no idea what they are asking? 

Yep, it was hard, but we were all in the same situation and “patience” was the word we needed to focus on.  Otherwise it would be even harder. I particularly enjoyed going to school and straight away, even without speaking English, I had really good



Nobody in the class could speak English very well



with Hulya, from Turkey and Sachie, from Japan.  I don’t want to be pretentious, but I am kind of philosophic by nature, the way I grew up,  and when I met this two girls I knew we could be good friends.

 

Spot on!!! Months later we started to share our life doing amazing things. Walking in parks, popping to pubs, visiting the places we were living, and more. Sachie, like all Japanese in my point of view, was really clever, and it was her job to “understand” and translate my English for others. Even I couldn’t understand myself – sometimes I just was lost in the explanation I was trying to say, but Sachie was brilliant do understand me, lol….



Hulya and me in London 2011



Me and Hulya in spite of our barrier language, met many times after school in Central London to have a chat and to have a cup of coffee at Starbucks - again, it was amazing! Our English was still not good, but we had connection and chemistry, so the situation was not a big problem for us. We liked each other!!!!

Once we were in the same situation, unhappy with people we leaved with, so we decided to live together. I really enjoyed staying in the same place as Hulya. She is a wonderful person, unselfish and she cares about me. I was jealous about her focus to learn English, while my focus became parties and having fun, lol. Now, after five years, my English still crap and Hulya is finishing her Masters! Boooooooo!!!!!

Yesterday I was really glad because I found Sachie on Facebook, and to my surprise she had some pictures of us from that time! It was amazing!!!!  I went to bed happy, my soul in love, and today I would like to share this experience with some friends!!!!!

Me and Hulya are still good friends. In the UK she was the most significant person I had met, and I would do anything to help her, and now I really fancy meeting Sachie at some point, and other students from school! You never know, life always is a big surprise!!!!

Bye,

Sonia Pugas