I have always been known as a fluent speaker of English, actually my relationship with this language started a long time ago..i started to speak English since I was one year old..my family taught some words and some small phrases to refer to somethings that a baby usually needs:sleep, dirty, want to wash, ..etc.
But actually my real connection was at the age of 4 when I was in my school at Kuwait, I had a tutor called Sir John, he read to us simplified stories,he made us read them out loud and even act them sometimes; so as a kid my fascination of the world of fantasy became associated with the English language.
Then Mrs Gamila appeared in my life, another English teacher, she was from Pakistan; she had the most beautiful long red hair I have ever seen, she used to braid it in along braid and then she forms a big mass of circular hair over her neck.
One day we went to a trip and after our class nagging she unties her braid and her hair extended till an inch before her feet.
Again beauty, dreams and feminality were associated to English.
I left Kuwait and came back to Egypt, I had a shock, all the kids were friends since kindergarden, I am a stranger to them, this country, the school, the way they talk, the way of unity between all of them was really something new for me, I lived my whole life in a multi-cultural society where there is Lebanese, Syrian, Indian, Pakistani, Palestinian, Kuwaiti and Egyptians.
Even the way of teaching was different, the only thing that seemed stable was my English teachers, they were lovable, I loved them very much, Miss Hala Mostafa, she made us write a composition each week as homework and reads out the best one in class, mine was mostly the one read, then Miss Hala el-Sherif, she was really nice person, she encouraged me to write short stories and told me I am a good writer, she even made me love grammar, the rules that make the sentences look more beautiful.
Then in second Prep. they got us a really horrible English teacher but he did the most wonderful thing, He introduced us to english poetry, William Wordsworth "the music in my heart I bore".
Then came Miss Dina, the lady who taught us to be tough charachters and read us "Tale of two cities", who made me love Sydney Carton to the extent I cried when he was executed.
The top of it was Mr. Yehia, the English teacher who fascinated me with his American accent, tiny body and his termendous ability of humor and sarcasm, his devotion to make that boring "Great expectations" one of the most wonderful things to read, and lastly he gave me the chance to do my first acting experience when we did a dialogue about enviroment in the school party.
Again English was a sign of stability and acceptance of me in a new atmosphere and the only medium where I had chance to express myself while learning.
I went to college and my fluency of English was always a plus that give me a certain depth and mysterious prestige that I never knew where it came from, but I enjoyed it.
I am that kind of person when gets too excited or too angry just starts talking in English as a lousy Arabic dubbed soap-opera, usually my friends burst in to laugh, so english added that edge of humor to my charachter, which was really enjoyable.
Then I graduated, English fluency was always a must in any job that we apply for and I had it, to the extent that my first job was a translator for an English news website, the job was a disaster, really boring, no audience to read that work and evaluate it, just another one in team of ineffiecient website.
English for the first time for the first made me feel miserable, I left the job and got a new job, people always come to me to translate things to them and so on..I always feel that I am something people use instead of a dictionary, my love to this language and infatuation by it and the people it made them enter my life became only some stupid terms that are translated with no effort and passion.
So I decided to write this to say that I love English not for the prestige, no because its part of who I am, its a language that increased my ability to read more books, talk to more people, and enjoy my life.
