My grades for English during secondary education has
always remained at a borderline C6, which treads the thin line between the
passing and failing grade. I felt that passing English was sufficient to get me
through school, as long as I could express myself and converse with others.
Moving on to tertiary education, I was exposed to effective
writing and communication modules which included formal letter writings, emails
and many more. This was the point where I realized that my English standard was
far lacking as compared to my fellow peers, who could write fluently and portray
their thoughts on paper. I felt inferior to my fellow classmates in my language
competence and decided to seek help from my tutor. I was told to read newspaper
articles and books to gain more exposure towards English Language. This
ultimately helped to improve my vocabulary, writing skills, and even confidence
when communicating with others. This has dramatically improved my daily life
with the ability to express myself more accurately using a common language.
Looking towards the future of being a professional in
the industry, I truly believe that having a stronger command in English language
would greatly boost a person’s value, as well as the ability to communicate
efficiently and effectively. With this in mind, I would strive to improve with
the help of fellow peers and constant exposure to higher levels of language
learning such as the Effective Communication module.
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ReplyDeleteHi Donny,
ReplyDeleteI have the same scenario with you as well which is my family is using Mandarin to communicate with each other. Besides, my secondary school is based on speaking Malay in Malaysia, thus my foundation of English is very weak, my 'English Journey' started when I was studied in Singapore Polytechnic and I think that it is too late for me to learn English in speaking, writing and listening. Your tertiary education reminds me something similar that I faced before, when first year in Poly, no matter how I try my best for communication skills module, my grades was not very good. In conclusion, I hope that we can work hard together to improve our English. Cheers!
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your post as I myself do face a similar situation.
DeleteYou have describe your English journey clearly, showing how much you have learnt since the start of your journey. It is good that you provided examples on the difficulties in face in your journey so that others can learnt from it. I like how you express your thoughts on your situation ,it give us a deeper understanding on how you feel during your English learning journey.
I do agree having a good command of English will definitely benefit your career, one should always seek self-improvement.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI see similarities in our family background as my family also converse only in Chinese at home. From your post, I understand that you had a difficult time brushing up your English as you did not do well for your English during your secondary education. However, the grades you have gotten previously does not matter so long as you have the determination to improve. I did poorly for my English during my secondary education too and what I did to improve was to start reading lots of books. Watching English dramas and movies helps too as it aids in broadening my vocabulary pool. It is great to see that you are passionate in improving your English. Let's work together to improve our English together!
ReplyDeleteHi Don,
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, we communicate mainly in mandarin and dialects within our family members but that should not cause us to neglect the importance of English. My mindset was almost like yours, being an engineer does not require much of writing reports, or so i thought. Despite my English being D7, i then realize how hard it is to communicate with other peers who speak fluent English. Not being able to understand them and finding it hard to express yourself not even with simple words.
To me, i started trying to communicate even more with peers. Rather than improving on my English, i went to having practicals, whether or not in English or mandarin to improve my communication skills and then going for conversing in English. Well... i did learn some vocabulary in subtitles of dramas. ;)