"Allah honors every child of Adam, who are we to look down on others?" - Nouman Ali Khan.
Assalamualaikum wbt and hello :)
So today I’m going to talk about my English.
I was a student of SK Zainab 1. As for English and science
subjects, well sometimes maths, my teachers always used English as their
primary teaching language. And some of my friends already could speak in
English very fluently at that time.
According to my English subject grades, my English was not
bad at all. Well, my writing English. But, I had a problem when it came down to
my speaking English.
Honestly, I didn’t do much talking in English – and I admit,
I regretted it. Another way of putting this is I didn’t practice to speak in English.
I had joined a few English-related activities such as
storytelling & choral speaking. My pronunciation was great at that time –
well, I mean you won’t be hearing my kelatenese accent getting mixed up with my
English accent.
But why this girl who has good grade in English and good
pronunciation did not practice to speak in English?
Aha!
Because I was scared. I was embarrassed. I was shy. I did
not have confidence. Funny *roll eyes*.
When I was in MRSM Pengkalan Chepa (always PC lols), I found
out that the learning environment there was very English.
We had morning calls every weekday mornings. The emcee spoke in English. The teachers who spoke during the morning calls also used English. I was at
awe (this was when I was in form 4).
Then, I got to know a few of my batchmates & seniors who
can speak in English like how most of us can speak in Malay. They were awesome.
But, but, nahh I still won’t speak in English at that time.
Every time my teachers told my classmate and I to do presentation in English, I
always managed to escape somehow. I know right? I’m good at escaping. Lols.
So, basically, my speaking English was terrible.
Coming to Kolej MARA Banting (KMB) did make me nervous. Why?
Because these people are no joke. If in PC, there were only several people who
can speak English very, very, very well (note how many ‘very’ I put there), KMB
has lots of them. It would be a humiliation if you do not know how to speak in
English – like this person here: ME!
Ye laa… dah interview pun in English. And kitorang mmg akan
fly ke Anglophone countries. So, yeah, most of them can speak in English very
well.
Here, we are needed to make a lot of presentations. Also, we
have a lot of activities that require everyone to speak in English, such as
Interactive Oral Presentation, also known as IOP.
Aha!
When I was in my 1st semester, we did a debate. Well, the format was like a debate but we called it 'discussion'.
I’m used to debat, as I was a pendebat myself, but to debat
in English was pretty much scary.
 |
| Rinduuuuuuuuuuuuu. Hai Hadi XD |
But then, I needed to do it anyway. So I pushed myself to
speak in English. It went okay (no it’s not).
Now, I can actually speak in English. Even though there’ll
be a few errors at times, but I’m feeling comfortable of using it. And I guess, that's the most important thing for me.
So here are a few lessons I've learnt:
1. PRACTICE!
You need to be braaaaaaaaaaave and practice using English.
It’s okay if you have grammatical errors here and there, you’ll get better
after a while. Alah kamon la, even bahasa melayu pun, siapa yang boleh jamin
yang dia bercakap tanpa kesalahan tatabahasa? ;)
2. Be confident.
3. Don’t mind people who judge you.
Actually, I haven’t met someone who is cynical about me speaking in
English. People around me always don’t mind me trying. Some of them even gave
me support. And some even waited for me to finish my sentence regardless how
hard it was for me to do it.
4. Don’t give up trying.
Because the outcome is satisfying.
Oh oh I just got to tell you this. Have you ever heard of Adele's new song entitled Hello? I like this one cover made by Leroy Sanchez. His voice is pretty amazing. You should listen to it. Lol.
Well that’s it folks. Thanks for reading.
Much love,
Mierah Aziz.
P/s: Will be having 3rd semester exams starting next week. Pray for me! Also, I'm officially a mak cik. Lol. Got 2 nephews yesterday... they are twins!
Footnote: other than at schools, I did not grow up in english speaking environment. So this means a lot for me. And I just want to give support to those people who would like to try speaking in english. Huhu.
