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<title> Joy and Frustration </title>
" I can hardly hear you're a foreigner", said the woman in the neighbourhood where we lived in Guildford. Inside I was filled with happiness of being accepted in the country of England. "Yet, was it not only a polite phrase to make me happy? She must have heard how incapable I was to express myself in many areas. It might be that she wanted to encourage me to improve my English. Maybe, she could hear I enjoyed talking to people in my new country."
"Thank you very much", I replied. Our conversation continued....
I very much enjoy communicating with English speaking people.
 Presumably, my joy derives from the fact that the using of the English language opens up for new close relationships. It really is to my advantage not being afraid of speaking and my interest in other people is also to my favour. I assume that people are interested in me too. This gets the conversation going. Fortunately, my pronunciation often is accurate, which helps to prevent misunderstanding in a dialogue or other conversation. I think that even my spoken grammar sounds quite correct. My being able to pronounce well and to speak grammatically correct has been a good help when starting a talk with a stranger. I have never felt badly treated.
There are no larger difficulties for me to carry on a conversation. I am quite good at expressing my feelings and thoughts, and to get the other person involved.But, on the other hand, I often experience frustration when it comes to expressing a certain word. Frequently, I have to replace the word I am searching for with another one. Sometimes I must use a full sentence to substitute on single word!! I have found it very annoying not being able to use more of the English vocabulary. My English vocabulary sometimes feels like a library where only certain books are available.
As for my written language, my strengths are almost the same as in my spoken English; the joy of communicating in writing and the courage in expressing myself on paper. I also feel quite sure at spelling. When it comes to grammar, I think I have some problems with sentence-structure. I also find it complicated to get my thoughts in a proper order, when writing an essay. Too often I find myself forgetting the reader. Signposting and coherence are not my strengths. The frustration I find myself in when speaking, not finding the perfect word, is also occurring when writing. Especially, I get very frustrated when I am not able to find synonyms I am looking for.
I hope at the end of this term I have come to the stage where an essay like this could have the title "The Joy of Using the English Language."
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