I started learning English from my grade four. I started learning from A,B,C.....at the begining and with speaking practice as directed by the textbook. The first sentence I spoke in English was "My name is Shashidhar". It was almost 28 years ago that I started the journey and I am still on the learning journey. Mr. Damoder Pandey who was my high school English teacher helped me a lot to learn English well. His teaching was more practical. He always encouraged us to write some paragraphs each day and speak English in the classroom. He never followed the translation method (that was usual in schools in Nepal at that time) rather he used communicative apprach focusing more on real practices with storying, role play and oral practices with all other aspects of reading, writing and listening. After my high school, there was long gap in the practice of learning English in my university life.

This gap was fulfilled when I met Laxman Gyawali as a resource person in a private school where I was teaching mathematics. I was not a laguage teacher but I always wanted to learn English. His brief presentation in a workshop in the school increased my thirst of learning English. From the day I started dreaming again when I would be able to speak like Laxman, give presentations to other teachers as Laxman does, how I would be able to improve my English accent as Laxman speaks and how I would be able to give long lectures as Laxman gives. Laxman became my role model and my ideal English guru throughout my life.

I met Laxman in Kathmandu University School of Education next time as a teacher in my MPhil class in 2005. I enjoyed a lot while attending his class. I learnt a lot from him while I was at Kathmandu University. Laxman is not only a role model for me now but he is the sole of my English learning and still he is in my heart, mind and in my practice though I am still a learner...!

They encouraged me to (a) read English newspapers each day (b) speak English with friends when possible (c) write some paragraphs in English each day and (d) listen English programs in radio or watch in TV. For me, these are the root mantras of learning English informally and I found these tools very powerful.

I would like to express my sincere felicitation to my two gurus of English language: Damoder Pandey (the igniter) and Laxman Gyawali (the propeller).