My English Language Learning Journey (Edited)

Language has never been my strong suit but being brought up in a Mandarin speaking family, I conversed with my family and friends in Mandarin. The English language was used mostly in school since all of the subjects were being taught in English except for Mandarin classes. English was not a problem to me in my lower primary school days. I remember we had to bring storybooks to read in school during assembly and I used to love reading, which was probably why I did not struggle with grammar. Also, in my secondary school, we had to read newspapers once a week during assembly. However, when there were any words that I came across and could not understand, I would just read it and continue with the article without looking up the meaning. So I do not have a wide range of vocabulary.

As I am not a very expressive person, I have never done well for anything that requires me to write or orally present. For example, composition, essay, report, presentation etc. Not having a wide range of vocabulary made it even harder for me to do so. I did not do well for my English paper for 'O' levels. I started disliking English. I dreaded doing any assignments that required me to write. I stopped reading and I did not try to improve myself.

English is a widely used language in most countries. It is essential for our education and also in the working industry. There will be report writings since I am studying in an engineering course. Therefore, it is important for me to improve myself in English. Language is something that will require putting in constant effort and  I hope taking SIE2016 will help me to improve in my writing.