**My first attempt to speak English in real life happened in this very club!**

I'm so grateful that I decided to join despite having a huge reluctance that's restricting my social skill and also eng speaking skills from expanding to the best. I hate to admit the fact that I was pretty nervous before going in even though I had denoted myself as a sociable, outgoing, not-afraid-to-start-a-conversation person.

But as soon as I entered the room filled with chatter and some coffee smells, I felt a genuine relief -- dropping all the nervousness that's been circulating around me while running -- and appreciation to myself forrunning for about a mile from my home. All of the restrains and exhaustion accumulated were removed away from my mind, mainly thanks to some gorgeous အမကြီးများ i saw right away (just kidding). But of course, my lungs did not recover right away. (i was like ဟူဟဲဟူဟဲ while ordering a orange juice at the counter). The organizer noticed me and gave me a chair to join in one of the tables which were having an ongoing conversation.

Led by a gorgeous, active leader ama, I got submerged in almost all of the stories and participated actively throughout the story-telling period, constantly commenting on their stories and cracking jokes sometimes which kinda gave arise to laughs blooming out. One of the funny things that happened was I was suggesting everyone to have a gf/bf while they were talking about dead serious mental issues. (Okay I know u would be confused but I have my own reason!) I thought they would realize that their problems are not as big as getting dumped. Ofc I was just cracking a joke to break the dense atmosphere. I'm thankful that everyone laughed. Cuz if they don't, i would leave a huge bad impression (like how dare u joke about my mental issues ). (But Yes, it's true that mental issues need to be taken care of before getting your lover. Otherwise, that would be "buy one depression and get one depression" package )

I felt like I made bonds with each and every participants after hearing out their stories. So why don't go for off-topic fortunately or unfortunately the youngest boy on the table is in a relationship and he happened to be the only person who is in a relationship on the table. And then everyone started cracking jokes about him, asking him like "oh give me some tips dear brother wait wait I'm gonna grab my pen and notebook" (asked by a 25-year-old ako). For me, since I'm a hardcore fan of zodiac signs, i asked for their zodiac signs and started giving advice, according to the sign, like a damn therapist. The conversation was like "JTK: what's ur zodiac signAko ta yout: LeoJTK: oh then u might have anger issues ( guess what. i was right )"

The conversation went on till the end and all of the members finished their parts. Everyone got approximately 10 mins to talk about their stories and the rest of the time to give comments on others' stories. But I had to bend over to the table for more than 45 degrees just to hear out their stories which were spoken in a hard-to-hear tone. I would say the stories were pretty amazing, well-spoken, and upsetting since the topic was "Mental issues during the crisis". Oh I forgot to tell you about my story. It was about how I got out of my hometown and ended up living in YGN. In spite of the ups and downs of that period, I always managed to maintain positivity, mainly thanks to my father who would sit down and give at-least-2-hour-long Ta Yar Daw Myar almost every night. Anyway, he couldn't keep me from suffering anxiety and depression caused by my exams . That was the story I shared.

We took a lot of selfies and went outside for a group photo afterward. "Goodbye" and we parted ways.

So here's the end..... oh wait there's a conclusion part (more like a motivation-packed conclusion.) Scroll up and read more

I encourage each and every single one of the English learners to join a real-life speaking club (or at least try to get a speaking partner around you) because the experience is totally different. I know and I have tried the virtual speaking thing, but u don't get eyes set on you while talking in online classes, meaning that you could just look away or turn off the screen. But in real life, it doesn't work that way. Based on my experience, every expertise needs painstaking effort and practice. First-timers need more energy as there's a certain activation energy to ignite the starting pin. If you wish to study abroad or travel abroad in near future, this is the time to leap out of your bed and do something.

oh, another benefit! I knew only this one club before this. Thanks to a friend I got from the club, I now know other places to hone my speaking skill. Well, i would say this is the significant perk of getting into the community where like-minded people interact and share infos.

Here's more info about this awesome The Coffee Club . I really do wish for more sessions as there's only one session per two weeks.