Humberto Soto is July's Learner of the Month. He is 46 years old and is married with three wonderful children. He is from Venezuela, but has been living in Canada for about two and a half years. He holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and has worked in the oil industry for years. Humberto started studying English when he was twelve years old. While he was working as an industrial engineer in Venezuela, he was sent to take a six-month English course at a very well recognized Venezuelan language teaching institute. The course was called "English for Engineers." He was 28 years old at that time. Humberto says: When I first came to Canada, I truly believed that my English was good enough to get myself immediately involved in Canadian society. This feeling vanished as soon as I first watched Canadian TV and realized that I was able to understand no more than 20% of the words that were spoken. At that moment, I decided to improve my English by registering in a Canadian school for adult learners. I registered in a Canadian ESL program for new immigrants and studied for about 14 months. All of the English courses I mentioned above had a lot in common. They were focused on the traditional method of teaching. I was given a lot of grammar rules to memorize. While studying here in Canada, I was not encouraged to learn English, but to pass several English tests which eventually led to a diploma that certifies I passed the ESL program. However, this ESL diploma did not mean that I could speak English fluently. When I tried to tell my teachers about my experience during this long learning process, I was unable to express my feelings, as I could not form any sentences. I was so frustrated. I felt that I had wasted a very valuable period of time.
Humberto enjoys The Linguist system because it is quite different from any other method of English learning he has tried. He is happy there are no grammar rules to learn and that he can study content he is interested in. Humberto continues: While I both listen to and read the content I like, I come across words and phrases I do not understand and then save them in my own database for further review. I am encouraged to submit writing samples which not only improve my writing skills, but also enable me to improve my speaking ability. The Linguist provides me with the best system I have ever used to make the English learning process efficient and effective. The Linguist has helped me to achieve the results I have been looking for in a really short period of time. Only two months after I joined The Linguist, I started to speak English more fluently without even noticing it. It was amazing. It was like a miracle occurred for me.
Many people in Humberto's Catholic community, as well as his Hispanic friends, are surprised at how much his English has improved. Also, he is no longer afraid to ask questions on open forums where people are discussing different topics.
Humberto believes that using all the different features of The Linguist is important, but he enjoys speaking the most because he gets to know other Linguist members from around the world.
Humberto is looking forward to the day when The Linguist offers languages other than English.
