Living in a country full of people with different race and religion, it is only natural that we have a common speaking language to communicate between one another. Most people would think that living in such country, it is only natural that every single citizen is fluent in writing and conversing in our common language but that wasn't the case for me.
Living and being brought up in a Malay speaking family, I had little opportunity to practice conversing in English at home. At home, everyone speaks Malay to one another as my parents are not very well verse in English. Due to the little exposure to English, it is inevitable that I will be weak in English.
With English being my weakest subject in primary school, I started hating English and it continued snowballing as time passes. Despite all my efforts in trying to improve, my score remained stagnant and it demoralized me even more. Not long, I gave up in trying to improve my English and decided to focus more on my other stronger subjects.
However, somehow I managed to pull through primary school and achieved a decent PSLE score which allowed me to go Express stream in Hua Yi Secondary. Being in a non-malay dominated school, I was exposed to people of other races and this maximized my usage of English. It was here that I realized I was pulling myself down all these while as my English improved significantly compared to primary school. Thereafter, I started gaining interest in learning English again and my English learning journey changed for the better. Till today, I make it a point to at least read one article per day and one book every few months to keep improving myself.
Revised at 7:16pm on 17/09/16
Article that has been commented on:
Clarabelle
Cherlyn
Samuel
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ReplyDeleteHi Azrie
ReplyDeleteIt was great reading your learning journey as I can relate your experiences well.
However, I felt that your article is slightly repetitive. For words like "naturally", my personal opinion is that you may use synonyms instead to make the article less recurring.
In addition, I understand that you want to emphasize the last few statements but the usage of "it was here" can be replaced by transitions or connectors to bring out the same impact.
Despite the minor setbacks, your article was sincere in delivering your journey through English. Thank you for reading my comment!
Regards
Khia Meng
Dear Azrie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this article.It was a pleasure reading your article about your past experience and I am glad that you are reading everyday to improve your English.
However, just a few points for you to take note will be : for your first paragraph, "it is only naturally right..." , you should rewrite it as " it is natural...".
I believe that the word right is redundant because by using the word "natural", it already drives through your point.
For the last paragraph, instead of using the word "it was here", the word "it was then" sound more appropriate because it is already in the past.
For your last paragraph, there is also many repeated words such as "It was here" , some of the "It was here" seems to be redundant as you can connect the sentence together.
Thank you for reading my comment!
Best Regards
Cherlyn
This is a comprehensive look at your experience with English language learning, Azrie. Thanks for the detailed reflection.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few areas of language use you might consider:
1) Living in a country full of people with different race and religion, it is only natural that we have a common speaking language to communicate between one another. >>> (dangling modifier)
2) Most people would think that living in such country, it is only natural that every single citizen is fluent in writing and conversing in our common language but that wasn't the case for me. >>> (dangling modifier)
3)
Living and being brought up in a Malay speaking family, I had little opportunity to practice conversing in English at home. >>> CORRECT! Now compare this sentence to the previous two.
4) At home, everyone speaks Malay to one another as my parents are not very well verse in English.
5) Due to the little exposure to English, it is inevitable that I will be weak in English. >>> (dangling modifier/verb tense)
Due to the little exposure to English, I was very naturally weak in English.
6) ... it continued snowballing as time passes. >>> (verb tense)
7) Not long, I gave up ... >>> (wrong phrasing)
8) However, somehow I managed to pull through primary school and achieved a decent PSLE score which allowed me to go Express stream in Hua Yi Secondary. >>> (wrong verb form)
...somehow I managed to pull through primary school and ACHIEVE a decent PSLE score, which allowed me to go TO express stream in Hua Yi Secondary.
9) Being in a non-malay dominated school, I was exposed to people of other races and this maximized my usage of English. >>> (one capitalization issue)
10) It was here that I realized I was pulling myself down all these while as my English improved significantly compared to primary school. >>> (wrong phrase)
It was here that I realized I was pulling myself down during this time as my English improved significantly compared to primary school.
This extensive commentary should not eclipse the excellence of your content. Thanks for the effort!
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DeleteIt was then that I realized I was pulling myself down during that time as my English improved significantly compared to when I was in primary school.
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