Sunday 11 September 2016

My English Learning Journey

Just like most of the children born in the 1990s era, I only came across the need and the purpose to learn English language in my primary school education. I was born in an Indian family. My grandmother brought me up teaching me Tamil language. I learnt to speak Tamil easily as I was listening to it all the time.

Singapore, a society with people of different races, need a common language where everyone can easily interact with each other. I would never say it was easy to speak and write English in my early days. It was sudden. I was compelled to learn it in order to speak to my teachers and fellow classmates. I felt down when I couldn’t express what I wanted to share in English. My grammar was totally wrong. I didn't use much vocabularies or adjectives in my sentences because I always feared I was going to say something wrong. I hardly passed the English subject in my primary school although I loved reading story books.

In my secondary school and polytechnic days, I made a lot of non-Indian friends where I had to interact with them in English. I chose to come out of the fear and speak to people from different races. The more I spoke, my self-esteem increased. I had to face an Italian employer during my first part time job. Initially, I was fearful due to his accent and different way of speaking English compared to an Asian. However, when I could speak to him and answer his questions, I realised that I could talk to anybody in English.

I believe there learning English doesn't have an end. At every phase of my life, my English is always better than yesterday. I hope I will be proficient in this language someday.

Revised on 22/09/2016 (11:40am)

Article that has been commented on:
Xian Jing
Rafiana
Fira



4 comments:

  1. Dear Samuel,

    In my opinion, your descriptive reflection is short and sweet.

    However, I think for paragraph 2, line 1, instead of "communication language" it should be "common language".

    Sincerely,
    Nana

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Samuel,

    The blog post was clear and concise, I could understand how you overcame the fear of speaking English. Coming from a mandarin speaking family, I understand that it can be difficult to converse in English. Good job overcoming your fear!

    In my opinion, the sentences, "I worked my first part time job where I had to face an Italian employer." and "Initially, I feared due to his accent and different way of speaking English compared to an Asian." has some structural error. I believe you could write them this way "I had to face an Italian employer during my first part time job." and "Initially, I was fearful due to his accent ...".

    All in all, I could see the effort for the blog post. Well done and I hope to read more of your blog posts in the near future!

    Regards,
    Jasper

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Samuel,

    Great article you have here. It was very easy for me to understand the points you were trying to send across. The way you paragraphed and arrange the order of your points really eased the whole process.

    However, there are a few points that I would like to clarify:

    1) 'I learnt to speak Tamil easily as I’ve been listening to it all the time and it is my mother tongue'
    I think adding ' it is my mother tongue ' at the back of this sentence is quite redundant as we already know you are born into an Indian family and your grandmother even taught you Tamil language.

    2) 'Singapore, a society with people of different races, need a communication language where everyone can easily interact with each other.'
    I believe you were to trying to say 'common language' than 'communication language'.

    Thanks for reading my comment. All the best in your journey in improving your English!

    Regards,
    Azrie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, Samuel, for the effort with this informative and self-critical reflection. It's very interesting that your ability with English evolved thanks largely to your social interactions, and in particular, when you had a part-time job with an Italian. That says much about the world we live in, especially within Singapore society.

    You've gotten some good feedback on your post from classmates. I'm glad to see that you have made an effort at revisions. Still, as you have written: "... there is no stopping point in learning English."

    There are still some problems with this draft, most especially verb tense:
    - I learnt to speak Tamil easily as I’ve been listening to it all the time.
    - I don’t use much vocabularies, or adjectives....
    - ...I’m going to say something wrong.

    A further revision?

    ReplyDelete