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TEAM WHITE CITY FANZINE
CROSSING LANGUAGE BARRIERS By pushing herself to improve her English, Italianborn Romina Melis has blossomed in confidence and is making great progress as an apprentice:
I
was born in Italy and have lived in W12 for two years. In Italy I was working as a surveyor but when I arrived in London my English wasn’t good enough, so I worked for two years as a waitress and bartender, attending ESOL courses at the same time. Before being taken on as an apprentice I was unemployed for a year. I kept myself busy volunteering for the Citizens Advice Bureau and an employment agency called Tendis, and also attending as many courses as I could. Volunteering at those organisations was challenging, but it definitely helped my English skills and motivated me to move forward. One of the courses that the Jobcentre offered me
was in business administration, Improving my English has so I started to think about a been hard, but using it every future in this field. I applied for day when speaking to clients an apprenticeship with H&F and colleagues has made me Council and gained a work more comfortable and built placement in the health and my confidence. safety team of the housing and I now feel I am an equal, regeneration department. and my colleagues are great. This is my first experience in They are always there to the public sector, and since I answer any questions for me started I have learned so many – and I have a lot. things, such as new software The work I have done has and online systems. I’ve also been very interesting, and my learned a lot about the borough. colleagues have treated me When I started my professionally. Among many apprenticeship, I was quite other things I have had the ambitious about improving my chance to arrange and English – I set myself tough organise courses, which targets and was eager to learn is a huge responsibility, fast. At first I struggled with and I have loved every things like the acronyms people bit of it. This has been use at work, and all the different a great experience accents of my colleagues, and I feel ready but gradually they became to apply for more familiar. permanent jobs.
“Improving my English has been hard, but using it every day when speaking to clients and colleagues has made me more comfortable and built my confidence”