the word girl

The word “GIRL”
Have you ever tried to say the word girl in a different pronunciation? Did people understand when you said it?
When I took my first step into the United States, my biggest worry was pronunciation.
In my entire life, this was the first time I took a journey to a different country. Everything was so new to me; white and black faces, tall and muscular people. Most of all, their eyes attracted my attention. I came to the United States seven years ago. Back then, I didn’t fully understand the English, so it gave me a lot of problems. Every time I went to school, all I did was stare at the ground the whole day. When foreign students tried to talk to me, I just glared at them and closed my mouth shut.
At the same time, most students just came up to me and started to talk in a foreign language. They asked me, “Where are you from?”“Can you speak English?” “What is your first language?” That time, I thought they were talking to me in an alien language, and I thought I was living on one of the Apollo planets in my imagination. I was having a difficult time for a few days and later teacher sent me to another location.
I was invited to go to a class called ESOL. When I went inside I saw mostly Asians and Hispanic students. The ESOL teacher came up to me and said this class was for students who couldn’t speak English well. Finally, I started to begin studying English with the ESOL teacher. The first day with her was a struggle. I couldn’t make an “r” pronunciation; I was crying and crying every single day.
However, practicing over and over again, I was able to say “r”. After reaching that goal, I had another goal to reach; the word “GIRL”
The ESOL teacher spoke first, “g-i-r-l” and I followed “g-i-r.” She said it again, “no, g-i-r-l” “g-i-r?” I remember I had to practice more than 500 times every night and day to master it.
The word “girl” still gives me a lot of trouble. I don’t know if I’m saying it better now than seven years ago, then again with the ESOL teacher’s help I was able to build such a high level of grammar. Yet, my weakest area is still grammar. Every time I write an essay, teachers always comment on my paper saying, “Watch out for the grammar.” Furthermore, when I say “girl” in front of my friends, they sometimes get confused and don’t understand a lot of times. I thought of myself that I was perfect and mastered everything that I needed but I was still far away from anyone else. Additionally, I had to walk into more than one path to learn more vocabulary and grammars to accomplish.
Even though I’m in the low level, I’m not the same girl I was seven years ago. Plus, I’m still learning and building myself to complete what is necessary.
Everyone in this world including the ESOL teacher, friends and family gave me a courage and bravery to fight. And I still am.