A Teacher Who Helped You

The teacher I want to talk about is Mrs Collins, a British volunteer who taught English at my secondary school for three years when I was around fourteen. She was quite unusual for our school; she was in her fifties, had worked in several countries, and refused to use the textbook for more than half of each lesson. Instead, she brought in newspaper articles, song lyrics and short films, and she made us discuss real issues. What helped me most, though, was the debate club she started after school. At that time, I was extremely shy and would have done almost anything to avoid speaking in public. She noticed this, but rather than forcing me, she gave me tiny roles — timekeeping, then reading out a single argument — and gradually increased them. By the end of the second year, I was captaining the team at a regional competition. She was important to me because she changed the way I saw myself. Before, I thought of myself as someone who was “bad at speaking”; she showed me that confidence is a skill you can build. That’s ultimately why I ended up working with languages, and I still use her approach of taking small steps when I’m facing something that scares me.

O‘qituvchining uslubi + sizga ta’siri + bugungi hayotingizdagi izi.