Inoka’s story
Inoka is from Sri Lanka. Her daughter who is now 13 was born in Sri Lanka and her second daughter who is 6 was born in the UK.
‘I came to the UK in 2012 to join my husband. When I came to the UK with my daughter she went straight into Reception and it was hard for her. I learnt English at school and when I came here, I could already speak a little bit. When my daughter went to Year 1, I realised that I had to help her and I had to speak to other people, but I could not understand them. I also thought that I would take my chance and I would do some studies, but I needed to improve my English for that.
I have a qualification in accountancy from Sri Lanka, and I worked for a payroll company there. Here, in the UK, I would like to continue working in the same field. We do work in English in Sri Lanka, but I always had someone helping me with that. And I could talk to my colleagues and management in my own language. Here you need English everywhere.
I did an Entry level 3 course in a college. Then I had my second child and stopped my English lessons. My social worker suggested me to have English lessons with LEAH and I started one-to-one lessons in 2019.
I really enjoyed my lessons with the LEAH tutor. I wanted to speak with somebody as I struggled with all the accents in the UK. My teacher helped me with all different areas I wanted to improve. We read books together as I wanted to focus on my pronunciation. When I needed to explain something, I took long time to express myself and they helped me with my vocabulary. We also worked on writing letters and how to use correct prepositions. Now I can speak confidently and I do not have to think about all the mistakes I make.
Now I make fewer mistakes, I understand people better and I have more confidence. I am preparing to take ‘Living in the UK’ test to apply for British citizenship, but I need to save some money as it is very expensive. My teacher helped me with the examples of tests and advised me where to find materials in the library just before the lockdown. When I got a job in a shop, I had to stop lessons. In my job I use English a lot both with customers and my colleagues.
During the pandemic I started watching news as I wanted to continue improving my English. If I could not understand some words, I googled it. I was looking for an online English course in Autumn, but then I saw an accountancy course and I signed up for it. It was supposed to start in January, but because of the lockdown it did not. I am looking forward doing something and studying more. While my children are at school, I can only do 10am to 2pm, so it is hard to get a better job or to do a course in a college. My children do come first, so I have to wait for them to grow up. When my youngest daughter is in secondary school I hope to go back to working in accountancy.’
