“You can’t study for language.” I
am sure many of you have heard this statement from your friends or even said it
yourself. I personally disagree with the above statement. Those people could
say that because they were good in English and they could express their ideas
in grammatically perfect sentences naturally. I, on the other hand, had to
prepare and use artificial means to pass English.
In secondary school, my way of
preparing for English papers was to memorise 2 perfectly edited essays word for
word. This means that all I need to do is to twig and link the essay that I memorised
to the question given during the exam day itself. It was the most effective way
for me because I did not have to worry about my tenses, grammar and vocabulary
which constitutes the most of my grades. This means that my English grades in
secondary school is a reflection of my creativity and not my language. When I headed
on to Junior college, I could not memorise essays word for word anymore because
we had to do argumentative essays instead of narrative. I could only memorise
case studies and hence I think that my GP grade was a true reflection of my
language. Getting a D for GP woke me up and it finally hit me that memorization
could only go this far.
I have always wanted to be a poet because I have a lot of stories and thoughts in my head but my
inability to express my thoughts in words stopped me from chasing this impossible
dream. I hope that ES1102 would open up a new journey for me and if possible,
bring me closer to my dream.
[Edited 04/09/14 11.57AM]
[Edited 04/09/14 11.57AM]
