LAYLA (IRAQ)

AUGUST 2016 TO DECEMBER 2017

My name is Layla and I’m from Iraq. Going to Habibi Center wasn’t only an opportunity for me to learn English but also a place to get my mind off of everything I was going through at the time. I will never forget the time I spent with all the incredible people I met there. It was another normal day of my life doing absolutely nothing, when a teacher (Toby) and one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go to school. I couldn’t believe what I just heard to be honest. They said that I’m gonna be taking English and Computer classes. I was excited to finally learn English so that I could communicate with people from different countries and help others translate. The first day of school, we’re only two girls and the others were all boys. Each of us got a camera and we went to different places (restaurants, cafés, streets, etc.) to take pictures. Then we got back to school and we were asked to make different facial expressions. I chose SAD because I was too shy to show my face and that way I could cover it. Then we took photos of each other and had fun scanning them. The next day I started English classes and I had a feeling I was already improving. Weeks went by and more and more people joined the school, which made everything even more amazing than it already was. I would wake up every day and be eager to go to school and see all of my favourite people. I mean, isn’t it everyone’s dream to spend time with people they love while learning something super important? After some time there were more classes (Art, Math, German, Greek and German) If I didn’t go to Habibi Center I wouldn’t be able to help my family in any way, I mean I was living with my grandparents and they were sick almost all the time and someone needed to stay with them at the hospital to translate and of course that someone was me. Despite the circumstances, the teachers encouraged me to learn for my Cambridge English exams. I’m so beyond thankful that they paid for and prepared everything. I took it three times alongside my friends until I got to level B1. People always told me to stop learning English because they thought that I was gonna forget it anyways, but I never listened to any of that. When I got to Germany, I of course had a lot papers to do and I couldn’t do any of that without the help of English. Even now (after two years of living in Germany) I speak English whenever people don’t understand me. I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart for everything Habibi Center has helped me with until now. I really don’t know how I would’ve done this without everyone’s help. My teacher (Stephanie) is the most amazing and inspiring person I’ve ever met in my life. Whenever it comes to helping others she’s the first to be there. One day I would like to be just like her.