English has been my Achilles
heel since young. Dealing with numbers, equations and symbols was definitely a
much easier chore for me to handle. English, Literature and papers that
requires a good command in English language was never my forte and have never
scored well in them during exams.
Coming from an English
speaking family, one would definitely think that my English would be of a
certain standard. However, conversations at home only revolves round things we
do in our daily life and also, no one would bother correcting even if one
speaks in broken English. On top of that, I never liked reading books. Whenever
my mum asks me to read books, just reading a page or so was the perfect lullaby
for me and the “Z monster” would start coming to haunt me.
Having bad grades was just
inevitable. In secondary school, my English was so bad that I had to attend a
workshop, organized for students like me, that focuses on teaching us how to
write English essays to score a better grade for O levels. It however was not
useful for me. Just barely passing my English with a grade of C6 for my O
levels really hit me hard, and it further proves my lack in competence in
English language.
In college, my general paper
tutor was really funny and interesting and that really gave me more motivation
to write English Essays. However, he only focuses on teaching us the contents
to put in to the essays. What I am weak in is actually penning my thoughts down
into words. It takes me a long time to actually structure my sentences and
putting my ideas down into words.
The fact that I have to end up
taking the Qualifying English Test and eventually ES1102 shows the inadequacy
in my aptitude towards English. My English Language Learning journey has never
reached its peak before and I really wasn’t looking forward to attending any of
the ES1102 classes initially. After the first lesson, hearing my tutor’s words
of encouragement and how ES1102 will eventually be of much help towards taking
ES1541, I begin looking forward to more of such tutorial lessons. What I can do
now is to make full use of this time to brush up on my English proficiency
instead of complaining about this compulsory additional module that I have to
take. Having the right attitude in mind, I believe with hard work and
determination, I would be able to conquer my phobia of writing and bring my
standard of English to the next level.
