Patricia Ann Wells

My name is Patricia, I was born on 23rd October 1971 in a little town in Pakistan, Tarbela, where both my parents were working. My mother was Italian, and my father was English. A few months after my birth, my parents decided to move back to the UK, Southend-on-Sea, where I was brought up learning about both the British and Italian culture, traditions and language. I developed the ability to speak both languages perfectly together with the curiosity of getting in touch with as many cultures as possible as I strongly believed, and still do, that this is the best way to open your mind and accept differences. At a very young age I knew I wanted to be a teacher although it was not clear what I would have taught, but I knew it was my “mission”. At the age of 17 I was given the chance to teach English and although still studying and with no experience I decided to accept the proposal. So this is when my career started. At the age of 30 I got married and at the age of 34 I gave birth to my first child, Elia, who can speak both Italian and English perfectly. In 2011 my husband and I broke up but a year later I met my present partner with whom I had two children, Adam and Altair. My present partner, Adil, is from Morocco and a very open minded man who has always supported me in my job and in my dreams. This relationship has really been the greatest gift of my life: we are a perfect example of integration and of respect of cultural differences. Our children are learning to accept differences and developing a very flexible mindset. Together with these essential points they are also learning to speak 3 languages, Italian, English and Arabic. Their ability to speak and understand three languages does not depend on the fact that my children are geniuses but simply on the fact that they naturally accept that in life we can express the same concept in different ways and the more you are open to learning languages the more you can communicate with different people.