This is for people who went to an English-speaking school not knowing English and their experiences, whether it was because you were never taught to speak English, were learning it but not yet fluent, or because you moved from another country.
This is for people who went to an English-speaking school not knowing English and their experiences, whether it was because you were never taught to speak English, were learning it but not yet fluent, or because you moved from another country.
One of my workmates moved to Australia from Uruguay when he was 14. He only spoke Spanish at the time, which isn’t very common in Australia. He’s talked a few times about the different experience he had vs his sister who is a few years younger than him. He still has a noticable rioplatense accent to his english, but his sister does not. He also had to go to a special immersion class/school to get his english to the point where he could do manage in regular english language schooling, but his sister did not, and managed just fine being moved straight in to english speaking schools.
Ultimately, he said that he got there pretty quickly, because he was still a kid, but he spent the best part of a year feeling isolated from his peers, except when he was in the immersion class.