My English Language Learning Journey



I had my first English lesson when I was nine in Shanghai. At that time, I thought English is not so difficult because we just learned some fundamental stuff such as 26 alphabets and some simple vocabulary. Thus my English grades looked nice. My perception of English changed tremendously in 2005 which the year I came to Singapore. I still remember the first English lesson I had, that was horrible. I stared at teacher’s face. Her lips kept opening and closing, and some bizarre words came from the mouth which I did not understand at all. I managed to hear one or two words from each sentence and all I can do is that guess what the teacher said from these few words.

In China, our comprehension passage is just half page and the essay is about 50-80 words. However, when I saw a two pages comprehension passage and 250 words essay, I really wanted to cry. Therefore, I struggled throughout my first two years in Singapore, and I really want to thank my English teacher. She tough me many things, helped me to build up my English foundation so that in the next two years, I was able to get a B grade for my English.

After 4 years secondary education, I entered the Junior College. English became the nightmare for a few students again and I was one of them. In JC, English module has another cool name, General Paper (GP) and the standard is much higher compare to the secondary English. Essay is no longer narrative or descriptive type, but argumentative writing which requires more deep thoughts and logic thinking. The comprehension passage is more profound and you have to answer the question using your own words.


Now I am in NUS and I did not have an English lesson for about two years. I failed the QET test, but I do not feel upset. I know my English is not so good yet and I do hope that I can master it. After the first tutorial we had with Brad, I feel so luck that I am in this course. He is really a great teacher and I think I can learn many things with him, not only the English writing skills but also the globalized mindset, life experience and the attitude of learning from him. I will definitely seize this precious opportunity to work with him. I believe that we will have a lot of fun in the class.

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