Well, the experience I'm going to describe is not necessarily the first one in my life as I've been learning English for years now. But it definitely was the first situation when I used English for communication in real life.

Well, you know, one thing is to speak English in classes when the need to speak is created somewhat artificially, and what you say is carefully controlled and assisted, yet another is to have real-life experience. So I still have a vivid picture of that morning when my mom entered my room with a wonderful piece of news. Her school friend who'd been living in America was coming to see her and invited us for dinner. The problem was she was coming with her husband who spoke only English.

I was terrified at the thought of having to speak English, so when my mom's friend introduced me to her husband, I got all tongue tied and hardly managed to say 'Hi'. I worried that he would laugh at me if I made mistakes. It was a nightmare. During the first part of the meeting I didn't say a word, I was just smiling and nodding at times to show I was listening to everybody attentively. I was paralyzed by fear.

He quickly figured out what my problem was and, at some point, he started asking me question after question. If it hadn't been for that, I would have spent the whole evening just sitting and smiling. But I understood there was no retreat and joined the conversation, still being afraid that everybody would judge me. Gradually I managed to overcome my fear and even started enjoying the talk. We talked and laughed. I picked up some interesting vocabulary. To tell the truth, only after that meeting did I start speaking English with more confidence and ease.