My name is..

English as a second language (ESL) is a popular course in Toronto, Canada. That's because Canada welcomes about 260,000 immigrants a year.

For a lot of immigrants, an ESL class is the stepping stone to a successful assimilation into Canadian economy and society.

Immigrants needing ESL go through a language assessment where their proficiency/knowledge of English is tested; then they are assigned a level. Next, they are referred to a school, a not-for-profit or an organization where they would attend an ESL class. Some individuals attend private ESL schools, (e.g Hansa), more specifically foreign students from all over the globe.

The lowest level of ESL is 1(basic), the highest or advanced level is 10.

Learning how to read, write and speak English is a big hurdle, more so is the learning of correct pronunciation and of the Canadian accent.

I have a Russian friend who would get irritated every time her Canadian boyfriend corrected her pronunciation of English words; they broke up later.

This friend is already a financial officer yet she still has difficulty writing in English, and her accent still shows a lot of Russian. So, she hasn't stopped and still takes courses to improve her English.

I've observed through the years of living abroad that Pinoys who didn't speak any English to start with are the ones who learned the language and the accent much quicker. How could this be?

Let me clarify that. These types of Pinoys usually live with people who speak English as a first language, and they live with them 7/24 hours. So, they hear English being spoken even in their dreams, perhaps.

I can recall several acquaintances, some married to Americans and Canadians, who speak beautiful English now as opposed to when they were in the Philippines, where they tell me they spoke little or no English at all.

Once, when I still lived in Ohio, we had Filipino friends visiting from Australia. The kids' parents were Ilocanos and they called their daughter, Vanessa.

It was a revelation to hear the parents pronounced their daughter's name, and a friend calling her, (this friend spoke no English and only learned it in the U.S.), because my friend's "Vanessa," sounded better and softer, as in "V-en-ess-ae," as contrasted with the parents' "Ban-essaaa."

"My name is," is the first phrase any ESL student would learn.