People rally around woman learning English after man criticizes her
There is nothing about learning English that is easy if it's not your first language. Heck, you could probably find more than a few native English speakers that continue to get tripped up on different words, meanings and grammar rules. There are so many words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have completely different meanings.
English also borrows the sounds or spellings of words from other languages just to mix things up a bit. So when an adult tries to learn the language for the first time, it's understandable why it can be a little frustrating. But Mary Gomes, a woman from Brazil has been enthusiastically learning English on her own amassing millions of "teachers" online.
The native Portuguese speaker gained traction from her infectious joy while reading English from pre-written notes in an effort to learn the language. She calls her viewers teachers as they often help her with pronunciation and correct emphasis on certain parts of speech in the comments. But recently the "teachers" have been trying to dry the tears of Gomes after an unpleasant encounter with a caller.
Gomes who is normally extremely bubbly in her videos appears red faced and somber in a recent video uploaded to TikTok. The mom of three explains through tears that she received a phone call from someone who needed to verify information but the caller began getting frustrated with the new English speaker. There was a miscommunication when the man on the other end of the phone asks Gomes for her address from seven years ago.
Since Gomes just started learning English in March 2024, she's not fluent yet and has a heavy Portuguese accent. This led to anger from the man when she struggled to give him the address. In her video she takes a deep breath to try to explain.
"I'm sorry. The name of the address is 190 T-H but I don't know how I say this number in English you know. 190 T-H, I think I speak wrong and NE. I said NE but I don't know, I think it's north east, north east. I don't know if I speak wrong, I don't know but the guy was so rude, so rude you know," she says through tears.
woman sitting near the osfa
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The man tells Gomes the address isn't found. Gomes says she tries to apologize to the man for misspeaking or him not being able to understand her. She tells her followers the interaction left her feeling small.
"Because I've been struggling to learn English. I do my best every day and when this happened. When this thing happened I feel oh my gosh why," Gomes cries.
People were hurt for Gomes as she has spent months learning to speak English and no longer needs to use notes to record videos. Commenters left the emotional woman positive comments to encourage Gomes to keep learning, praising her ability to speak more clearly now than when she first started.
One person notes, "the fact that you told this entire story so clearly in English shows how well you are doing."
"You are being able to express such deep feelings in a language that is not your native language, and that's really difficult, so, you are doing an amazing job Mary. Please don't feel discouraged," another person shares.
"Mary even as a native English speaker I forget words and mess up! I remember when you were still reading out of a notebook to make videos and look at you now telling a full story even while emotional," someone praises the upset woman.
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"Numbers in a second language are so so so hard!!! I can't even remember all of my addresses in English! You're struggling, but you're learning & expressing yourself so well, even while upset," one commenter writes.
Someone else encourages Gomes, "it hurts my heart to see you so upset! The world is such a cruel place sometimes. You're doing so well, we are all so proud of you. Don't let the worst people pull you down."
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People tried to help Gomes with the correct pronunciation of the number but were unclear on what number she was saying due to her accent. She clarified in the comments that she was attempting to say 190th which people heard as 1938, 19038 or 908. Since the interaction was over the phone, Gomes wasn't able to write the number down for the man to see to better understand her.
In the end, though Gomes was left in tears, she was reminded of how many people are rooting for her success. Learning a new language is hard and when dealing with people who have less patience for your endeavor, it can be deflating. The support Gomes is getting isn't waining. People wish her nothing but the best hoping she will continue trying to learn.