Improving your language skills at NYLC - A student success story

At the beginning of 2023, Edna Milena Traslavina, a 32 year old accountant from Colombia, decided to travel to New York City to learn English as a second language. For the past 4 ½ months, while attending the Intensive Language Program at New York Language Center, Edna has significantly improved her language skills. Edna believes that speaking English is essential to self-development and can lead to success in achieving career goals.

“I think that in most parts of the world, people speak English. It’s a universal language. So it can be very useful in your everyday life. Learning the language helps in your professional development and even your travels. While learning English in another country that is not your own, you get to meet people from other countries that you probably would never meet. For example, at New York Language Center, I got to sit in classrooms with people from different parts of the world like Japan, who were brought up in cultures different from mine. It’s interesting to meet people from the other side of the world in one school. The activities with NYLC allowed me to share my culture with classmates from both Queens and Manhattan locations. We have different ages, different cultures and I love it. It’s beautiful”.

‘What made the learning experience even more worth it’, she says,’ is the dynamism of the teachers in the classroom. They make it fun.’

When asked how she thinks English will benefit her for her future, Edna says that her clients at work use English as a preferred language. While studying English as a second language at NYLC, she believes her new language skills will not only facilitate her job in the future but will also give her a better understanding of her clients. “It was very important for me to improve my listening skills as well. Not just speaking. Because the clients have questions and sometimes they speak fast and have different accents”.

Edna is continuing her ESL education at NYLC-Manhattan and is looking forward to applying what she’s learned in her career in the future.