An interview with Tatiana from Russia, who studies intensive English at ELS Language Center in New York-Manhattan.

Q. Favorite thing about ELS? 

A. Teachers at ELS. They give students respect, and they are very wise. Favorite thing about New York City: World Trade Center

Q. Briefly describe your journey to learning English—why did you choose ELS?

A. Because English is an international language, and I think everybody needs to understand what a lot of people in the world speak. I want to improve my level of English, and then I can study another language. It’s interesting to understand people from another country, another culture, and to see a lot of new places and try to understand information.

Q. Describe your experience when you first arrived at ELS/New York – Manhattan. How did you feel? What were some of the first things you did?

A. I was very nervous. But everything here is very good, very kind. People are very friendly. I have very good emotions, even when I spoke to the visa officer; he was very kind and polite. One of my first and interesting experiences was to see museums and a lot of famous memorials, and I was in a museum in New York that was about 9/11.

Q. What did you like the best about Manhattan? What was the most enjoyable thing you experienced?

A. New York was like a dream. I could never think that I could be in New York and have such an interesting experience to see a famous big city, museums, and the World Trade Center. I liked the World Trade Center best because it was great to have people from other countries to speak with.

Q. What are some of the things you have learned in the classroom, and how have they helped you?

A. Every class is important to me. We speak to develop our language skills and grammar. All my life I thought I was very good in grammar because I was in my country. Now I learned something new because my experience here was bigger than what was in my country.

Q. How do you anticipate using the skills you have learned at ELS in the future?

A. In Russia, I like to write and do research, and if I can translate it in English, it can be useful to somebody in the future. For everybody, English is very important because a lot of people speak English. And for traveling it’s very important. When I travel with my family, now I can communicate with others.