I was not a good student when I started learning English, I was too shy and bad at communicating in my own language, besides that, my only contact with a foreign language was through music. My parents sent me to a school of English when the term had already begun, I was 8 years old then, and it was forbiden to speak Portuguese. It got me so stressed that I even remeber the first sentence I said: "Bananas are yellow". Everybody clapped when I said that because I kept silent for weeks. Instead of encouragement, the reaction labelled me as a weirdo, which made me hate going there, although I liked the language (mainly because I could stop making up lyrics). It was only when I turned 15 and took part in an exchange program to Bournemouth/England that things started changing. Thanks to my host parents and some German classmates! They made me feel comfy and reassured me. Returning to Brazil, I became showy and started teaching schoolmates, that's the moment I really commited to studying and understood language is a fabulous universe, as well as teaching.