The first step is always the hardest

G’day mate! How ya’ going? I’m Yuri. I already graduated from CCEB in February this year. Now I’m working as a nursery teacher in Japan. I’m busy but I enjoy this job because I use the English I learned at CCEB. I teach English to children twice a week. Occasionally native speakers also come. I look forward to seeing the growth of our students every day.

Recently I was asked to give a presentation. I talked about my experiences in front of people who are going to go abroad. I told my audience about Australian life, school atmosphere, host family and share house, etc. I talked for about 30 minutes using PowerPoint. I tenjoyed reminiscing on my Cairns life. A a lot of memories came back and I couldn’t organize the story well but after the presentation, the audience asked me a lot of questions about Cairns. Some people won’t even go to Australia but they’re still interested in it. I was very happy that my experience helped somebody. In particular, there were many questions like “I’m worried because I can’t speak English.” When I came to Australia last April, I couldn’t speak English at all but everyone helped me. So I told them not to worry.

Finally I told everyone: “It’s not whether you can or can’t; it’s whether you will or won’t.” The first step is always the hardest but that one step changes the future. I was super happy to study in Cairns!