Thursday, 23 January 2014

My English Language Learning Journey



Being brought up in a Chinese speaking family, I was destined to speak Chinese, and the chances of me using English were very minimal. As such, my English foundation was not good.

During my course of study in secondary school, I found love with Chinese since it was my forte. I do not hate English but just afraid of it. Whenever I was dealing with my English homework, I was filled with great anxiety and uncertainty. This had not only contributed to my poor English grades - my confidence level was also adversely affected. Thus, English has always been described as my "burden". At the end of the day, I did not score well for my O level English.

The inferiority for English kept bugging me even when I was studying in Singapore Polytechnic. In addition, I got worried when I realised that my course requires excellence in both writing and oral presentation skills. Thus, more often than not, I would spend hours doing my report and practising my oral presentation in order to do well. Initially, script was a must "weapon" for all my presentations. I would not be able to present well without it. I remembered there was once when my teacher reprimanded me that my presentation skill is nowhere near a professional. I felt really disappointed with myself. From then onwards, I practised my oral skills everyday without fail. I was really glad when my teacher told me that I had improved a lot as compared to my first presentation. This had greatly encouraged me to continue to improve my English.

Till now, I believe that learning English is a process that requires putting in constant effort to master, just like any other languages. Hence, my English Language learning journey has yet come to an end. I will take ES1102 as an opportunity to broaden my interest and knowledge of English. 

Word Count: 320