Learning is a journey, an endless journey. Well, I agree to this cliche yet true sentence. But in this case, English is my concern. Now that I reflect on my English learning journey, there is nothing that I can feel well of nor to be proud of my knowledge & grasp of the language. I don't like to read English books, magazines or other readings materials. In short I hate to read. Considering that my English journey starts in my primary school days, then progress to secondary level before entering the college, I spent almost 13 years learning, applying, practicing, & speaking the language. But sadly, I had no passion nor care for it. Thus, I'm ashamed of myself, particularly in my attitude towards the language. In simple term, I had a 'bad' experience of all my English classes.
The problem was not the teacher, classmates, classroom, the content of study or the method used to teach the language because simply the one & only problem was Me! I could not be bothered of what my teacher taught in class, did not capitalised on the knowledge that my teacher was sharing or took advantage to clear my doubts of the language, ignored the importance of each lesson(though sometime the class was very boring) & I never put in effort to care about the lessons/skills being taught. Even though I knew my English was bad & 'rabak', the intention to improve only burns brightly at my heart, but my actions were simply nothing!!! Now to think of it, I was immature that I wasted all my English lesson instead of using them to improve my English. I was ignorant, thinking that my English was 'not as bad as I think it is' but in reality my English really s--k!! My attitude was undesirable & foolish for being a hypocrite towards the language. Now that I'm here, I regretted all the time,effort,money that went into vain. Hopefully, now that I have finally realise the importance of English, I will not repeat my past mistakes...
At times, I feel embarrassed of how bad my knowledge of English is. Simple spelling, grammar & vocabulary English I could get them off. A serious 'reality-check' encounter was when one day my colleague said this to me, "Ipin, you are going into University level. You need to use a higher level of English at university...(ok, i forgot what he said word for word so i rephrase his words here)". I know my English was bad & what he said was true. But what have I done after this realisation to improve my English??? This has to stop. So from that day onwards, I started a new initiative & with a renewed belief of improving my English language...
I'm still far from my desired level of English language mastery. Though overcoming this problem at this late stage was not ideal, at least I'm trying to retify the problem & improve. Language needs to be practice & i need to start the habit of writing & thanks to 1 of my friends feedback, to start checking what i wrote/typed before finalising my words.
I'm very open to criticism. So if you spot any language/English errors that I made in this post or my future posts, please feel free to comment or blast at me!!! I will feel grateful & appreciate much of your effort here.
Smiles,
Ipin. ^.^v
5 comments:
Hi Ipin!
I can feel your sincerity and passion while reading your essay.
Regarding the'errors' in the essay, not sure whether I am right not... If is not then lets learn together in class:)
-"Considering that my English journey starts in ...." -> started
-"Language needs to be practice..." -> practiced
-"friends feedback..." -> friends'
Overall, it was an interesting read for me, thank you! All the best in school!
Hi Ipin.By reading your essay, I can really feel your sincerity. I also learn from you on how you use the "parallel writings" such as " I spent almost 13 years learning, applying, practicing, & speaking the language. "
Here are some of my opinions:
-"The problem was not the teacher, classmates, classroom, the content of study or the method used to teach the language because simply the one & only problem was Me!" I find that the "because" used here is a bit weird. Won't it be better to substitute the last part with "but me" ?
-There is a minor mistake here," I was immature that I wasted all my English lesson instead of using them to improve my English." It should be English lessons since there were more than one lesson and you used "them" later on.
Thank you for this brutally honest reflection, Ipin. I appreciate how you are so self-critical about your English language learning and previous approach. Like the others mention, I also admire your sincerity. We can see how you have regrets about your lack of attention to English.
Of course, if you "hate reading" you should not be surprised that your development has been less than expected.
Here is my suggestion: Force yourself to develop an interest, perhaps in an area that excites you (music or football?), and at the very least, in some area related to your study major.
Then make a concerted effort to read in those areas at least once or twice a week. Even if you read articles from popular online journals, magazines or newspapers, that will be helpful. The world is your oyster, brother! You need to crack it open to eat it!
Here are some more comments on language issues. (Your classmates have mentioned other points.)
a) (collocations)
-- I agree to this cliche >> I agree WITH this cliche
-- I had a 'bad' experience of all >>
I had a 'bad' experience in all
-- I feel embarrassed of >> I feel embarrassed about (or "by")
b) that I can feel well of nor to be proud of my knowledge & grasp of the language.
>>
that I can feel good about nor be proud of in terms of my knowledge and grasp of the language.
c) (verb tense)
starts in my primary school days, then progress
>>
started in my primary school days, then progressed
d) (parallelism)
I'm ashamed of myself, particularly in my attitude
>>
I'm ashamed of myself, particularly, of my attitude
e) I could get them off. >>> ?
f) so i rephrase his words here >>>
so I rephrased his words here
g) I'm trying to retify the problem & improve. >>
I'm trying to rectify the problem and improve.
(no "&" in academic writing in place of "and"!)
h) writing & thanks >>> ???
Thanks for your hard work!
Ok! Noted. Thanks for all the comments.
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