Romanian girl leaps over language barrier with a solid GCSE outcome
MOVING schools is a mean feat, but moving to a different country with no vocabulary is a challenge in itself
Raluca Stoianovici, 16, could barely speak a word of English when she moved from Romania and joined Warblington School two years ago.
Yesterday, she walked away with fluent pride in her Bs in music and ICT.
She said: ‘We moved here with my family because they had work and moved jobs. I didn’t really know any English and I’m really quite happy with the results because I actually got to speak English properly.
Raluca, who now lives in Havant, also achieved Cs in maths and English language and literature.
‘It was a bit of hard work because I had to catch up with everybody and learn more English.
‘There were moments in class where I didn’t really understand what they were teaching or I had to carry around a dictionary all the time, but I caught up eventually.’
‘The school gave me laptops if I needed to translate anything to Romanian. They were very understanding, and they knew it was going to be hard from the beginning, but I just went with it.’
Raluca will be leaping over her language barrier even further by taking on English language in her A-levels at South Downs College.
She will also be studying for qualifications in psychology and art and design. From there, she has a broad canvas of opportunities ahead of her.
She said: ‘I’ve not really thought about what I want to do for a job yet, but I know that after I get my A-levels I want to go to uni.’