剑桥大学英语考评部以英语测评领域逾百年的专业积淀，多年来一直秉承初心，致力于帮助人们学习英语并向世界证明他们的能力。在全球化的浪潮下，通过掌握英语技能，提升自我能力与核心素养，许多英语学习者也开启了人生的“另一扇大门”。

“Cambridge English Journeys”系列邀请到多位嘉宾，为我们分享他们与剑桥英语结缘并改变人生的故事。以素质教育为初衷，在英语学习的过程中，大家发现人生的更多可能。我们也诚挚招募有故事的你，与我们分享你与剑桥英语共同成长的经历，在文章结尾处即可参与。

Andreza’s first real conversation in English didn’t happen until she was an adult. It was a telephone call with a university, which she remembers as a terrifying experience that she simply had to get through! It became the first step on her largely self-taught English learning journey that has seen her cement a career in Cambridge Assessment English’s Madrid office where she uses English daily. Her English skills have gone from strength to strength and she says she draws inspiration from her love of classical ballet and the arts.

Andreza第一次真正用英语进行对话，是在她成年之后，她清楚地记得那次与一所大学进行通话的经历。很大程度上，这是她踏上自学英语之旅的第一步，也帮助她在剑桥大学英语考评部马德里办公室的职业生涯站稳脚跟。在公司里，她每天都使用英语，她的英语技能越来越强。她也表示，自己从古典芭蕾和艺术中，获得了不断前行的灵感。

I was born in a small city near São Paulo, and I always wanted to learn English, but I never had the chance, as my parents couldn’t afford classes. We did learn English in school, but it was a very basic level. After I finished school, I felt that communications and public relations were interesting career options for me as people always told me I was naturally expressive. I decided to go to college to study public relations in São Paulo, which was a big decision because I was the first person in my family to go to university and lots of friends couldn’t choose this route at that time.

我出生在São Paulo附近的一个小城市，小时候一直想学习英语，但因为我的父母负担不起上课的费用，所以一直都没有机会。虽然我们在上学的时候学过英语，但那都是非常基础的水平。很多人认为我天生善于表达，我也觉得传播和公共关系对我而言是很有趣的选择，所以在中学毕业后，我决定去São Paulo的大学修读公共关系。这是一个重大的决定，因为我是家里第一个上大学的人，而且我的很多朋友都无法选择这条路。

Once I arrived at university, one of my teachers told me I must have English in order to secure jobs in the PR industry. However, my big challenge was time, as I was balancing work and classes. I managed to find a few hours a week to study English myself which helped me improve, so I’m largely self-taught, but I was also lucky enough to get a place on an online government programme in Brazil, which helps students get the skills they need to study abroad.

上大学时，我的一个老师告诉我，想在公关行业找到工作就必须学英语。因为需要平衡工作与学习，所以对我而言最大的挑战其实是时间。我每周都会抽出几个小时来自学英语，因此英语水平有所提高。虽然说我基本上是自学的，但我也接触到一个帮助学生获得出国留学所需技能的项目。这是巴西的一个在线政府项目，而我很幸运地获得了名额。

Interestingly I’d never had a real conversation in English until I was an adult, but that all changed one day. I was thinking of studying abroad, so I started applying for internships and I contacted the International Education University in Madrid, and a lady called me back to invite me to an event they were hosting. She spoke to me in English, and I was super nervous, but I got through it! It was then that I realised that I needed to get better at English!

有趣的是，在我成年之前，我从来没有用英语进行过真正的对话，但在某一天，一切都改变了。因为想出国留学，所以我开始申请实习。我联系了Madrid的国际教育大学，一位女士回电邀请我参加他们举办的活动。她全程使用英语，我感到很紧张，但好在顺利完成了这次交流。也正是在这个时候，我意识到我需要提高我的英语水平。

I then moved to Madrid, and I was still not speaking very good English, so I tried to expose myself to English as much as I could. I started working in marketing agencies and both of them had a very multicultural team who were using way more English than I was used to. I had two American colleagues and one of them didn’t speak Spanish, so we had to speak in English. She was very patient and helped me get over my fear of speaking in English which is a problem we have in Brazil – we might understand English, but we don’t want to speak it. I was also asked to write adverts for marketing campaigns, plus content for blogs and social media. She gave me tips on how to express myself in a better way. I also started writing in English and I had a colleague who was proofreading everything I was writing, which was a big help.

搬到Madrid之后，我的英语还是说得不太好，所以我会尽量创造让自己接触英语的机会。我开始在营销机构工作，这个行业的文化非常多元化，很多人使用的英语比我之前接触的更加复杂。我有两个美国同事，其中一个不会说西班牙语，所以我们只能用英语交流。这位同事非常有耐心，她帮我克服了说英语的恐惧，而这也是许多巴西人所遇到的问题——我们可能听得懂英语，但就是不想说。我的工作还需要我为市场营销活动撰写广告、博客和社交媒体内容，因此，她还给了我许多建议，帮助我更好地表达。我也开始使用英文写作，有一位同事专门帮我校对我写的内容，这对我也是很大的帮助。

Eventually I decided to take a formal class and I studied for about three months in an English school in Madrid, but once again it was very hard. I couldn’t enjoy classes because my level was very mixed. While I had become confident in expressing myself, I was having trouble with my grammar as I’d never properly studied it. One thing that really helped me was paying attention to how people speak, which words they use and in which context.

不过最终我还是决定去上正式的英语课程，并且在Madrid的一所英语学校学习了大概三个月左右，但这依然是一段很艰难的旅程。因为我的整体水平不太平衡，所以我一直无法享受课程。例如，当我建立起自我表达的信心时，我的语法却迎来了棘手的问题——毕竟我从来没有好好地学习过语法。不过，关注人们说话的方式、词汇、语境这件事，在很大程度上也帮助我改善了这个问题。

I then applied for a job at Cambridge Assessment English which was perfect for me because they wanted someone who spoke English, Spanish and Portuguese with a PR background. I got an interview where I had to present a marketing strategy for our online test Linguaskill, switching between Spanish and English multiple times which was a real challenge! I’d come so far on my English journey that I was now confident to express myself and I was no longer afraid of making mistakes. In my current role I do a lot of public relations work helping to write stories, building relationships with the media and organising events, and to do these I use English on a daily basis. We use English a lot in our day-to-day interaction as we’re in close contact with teams in Cambridge, Italy and a lot of our centres who are more comfortable speaking in English.

之后，我申请了剑桥大学英语考评部的一个职位，这个职位需要一个具有公关背景且会说英语、西班牙语和葡萄牙语的人，这对我而言简直是“量身定制”。面试时，我需要为我们的在线测评产品——剑桥领思，提出市场营销策略方案。在西班牙语和英语之间来回切换，对我而言真的是一个挑战。好在，我的英语之旅已经走了这么远，现在我已经可以自信地表达自己，不再害怕犯错了。在我现在的工作中，我也做了许多公共关系相关的工作，例如帮助撰写故事、与媒体建立关系、组织活动等等，并且为了做好这些事，我每天都在使用英语。我们与剑桥、意大利团队以及许多中心都保持着密切的联系，工作人员们更喜欢说英语，因此在日常沟通交流中，我们也是大量地使用英语。

In the communications industry you must be creative in order to face the challenges of your job. I’ve been an amateur ballerina since I was 14 and my love of the arts is a great source of creativity, so I try to translate this into my work. When people ask if it is a hobby, it’s hard to say yes because it’s more than a hobby. It’s something that I’ve always connected with; it lets me think about things from another perspective and moves my heart. Also ballet is something you never stop learning, and I’d like to continue with my studies in this area. The advantage is that now I can access precious resources in English, lots of reading materials, films and other sources that weren't available to me before.

在这个行业，你必须有创造力才能不断面对工作中的挑战。我从14岁起就成为了一名业余芭蕾舞演员，对艺术的热爱正是我创造力的源泉，所以我也试着将这一点转化到我的工作中。当人们问我这是否是一种爱好时，我很难回答。因为对我来说，芭蕾舞不仅仅是一种爱好，也是一直保有联系的“人生伙伴”。它鼓舞着我，并让我能够从另一个角度思考问题。在我看来，芭蕾舞是我永远不会停止学习的事情，我也想继续在这个领域学习下去。得益于我英语水平的提高，现在我也可以获得许多宝贵的英语资源，例如阅读材料、电影以及其他以前无法获得的资源。

In the future I want to keep studying. I would like to take a Master’s, something more academically focused. I don’t want to study anything related to PR and communications – and I’d like to combine something else with PR.

未来我想继续保持学习的脚步，我想去攻读更关注学术方面的硕士学位。不过，我不想去学任何与公关和传播相关的东西，我更想把其他东西和公关结合起来。

It will let me use another part of the brain and get a different perspective. Let’s see what I find!

这会让我用上大脑的另一个部分并获得不同的视角，我也很期待未来会发现不一样的东西。