In 10th grade, I decided to try and get into a gymnasium with an advanced English curriculum. After scoring 3 out of 50 on the entrance exam, the teacher, with a stern look, told me that I was light-years away from their level of English. Yet, for some reason, they accepted me anyway, emphasizing my good grades from 9th grade.

In my first English class, I immediately realized I had a long way to go. Whenever I was asked to answer questions or retell something, I saw the teacher's dissatisfied expression every time I made a mistake. Or just some silly snickering. Because of this, I got nervous and couldn't really say anything at all. And don't even get me started on the grammar tests—I felt that if I was scoring 5 out of 30, there was no way I could ever learn English. Of course, I started buying all the coolest textbooks and doing exercises, and then I even finished two levels at English courses, but that didn't really give me any confidence in speaking. I loved chatting in English, but as soon as I made a mistake, the teacher or someone else would inevitably smirk.

Everything changed when I started working with a native speaker. We did standard grammar exercises that are actually useful in conversation, chatted about a million topics, and he listened carefully, correcting me calmly and with a smile whenever I made a mistake.

So now, here in the USA, I speak absolutely freely on any topic without fear of saying something wrong. Americans never correct you with mockery; they always listen attentively, and sometimes they just correct something truly important and smile. They are always happy to help or give advice, or they just don't pay attention. I think they honestly don't care. The most memorable phrase is one my golf club coach always repeats: "I only know one language, and you know two! And my Russian is clearly worse than your English. So remember that!" As for those complex grammar tests, I still can't do them, but I love to chat and it's rare that I don't understand what they're saying.