English has
always been the second language of mine. Coming from a family that entirely
speaks Cantonese, it is unorthodox in the eyes of many that I put heavy emphasis
in English proficiency. I attended international schools in China prior to
coming to Singapore for studies in secondary 1. Attending international schools
made me at a much higher level than most of the students at same age, since our
curriculum were different from normal ones stipulated by the government. I
became advantaged in English language, together with several opportunities for
me to reassure my English proficiency in participating international English
speech competition, I was determined to use English on a higher frequency thus
decided to go out of China.
When I came
to Singapore, language was not a barrier for me and I could adapt to the
environment very easily. Yet, somehow I felt that my language proficiency has
reached a bottleneck where I can’t improve my writing skills, vocabulary and
expressions despite every possible action done. I felt fed up with English, the
sense of superiority that I used to have in China has vanished completely, and I
have been having an inferiority in speaking out in front of other people. At
the most comfortable level, I could write GP essays easily because they do not
require much high level of grammar as compared to narratives or literature.
Yet my comfort zone is relatively low standard as compared to others, thus I did
not perform well in A-Level GP as well as QET, ending up myself in this course.
I wish to
break through my bottleneck by taking this course, I am actually at a tipping
point. I am graduating this semester and had already secure a job, yet I am
fully aware that I won’t be able to succeed with my current English proficiency
and more importantly my inferiority in speaking English. I need to change.
