Oh, My English!

Salam w.b.t and Hi Folks.

How are you guys been doing? I hope everything in your life go well.

Recently, I took an IELTS exam. I would like to share my opinion on English language and how I have been doing so far. In this entry, I will write in full English although it is a little bit difficult for me. I will tell you why. Normally, I use English to write the academic reports, emails, and other formal communications, not in a casual writing. So, it is a bit odd and I hope you will get the message.

My recent IELTS result. Alhamdulillah, I successfully meet the target.

The first time I took the IELTS exam was back in 2010, a few months before I departed to Australia to pursue my studies. At that time, I was pretty intense to meet the target set by the university as well as my sponsor. The fee of the exam was RM600 and paid by the sponsor. If the students do not meet the target, they will either take another IELTS exam, pay by their own, or stop dreaming of going to Australia. So, at that time these factors drove me to do my best in the English exam as I do not want to disappoint myself as well as others. Somehow, I managed to meet the minimum target (the minimum was 6.5) and I was so relieved. Some of my classmates were not so lucky and they have to take another IELTS exam. Some of my friends who were unlucky even questioned me how I managed to pass and asked me for the tips to score in the exam. It was peculiar they asked me these questions because I was not the top scorer in the class. I said to them, "Hey, why don't you ask XXX, I believe she scored the highest band among us". Although I said this many times, some of them still approached me with these questions. I don't know why, maybe they thought I have some kind of magic spell and wished me to spill the beans.

When I started my studies in Perth, I realised, English was is no longer a medium or tool to assess whether the student is suit to study abroad or not. Instead, English is a necessity to live in foreign country, like food. Human eat food to live, right? Therefore, I used English to survive, sort of. You know what, it was really difficult and exhausting as Bahasa Malaysia is my mother tongue. Plus, the Australian accent was so weird and difficult for me to understand as I was a foreigner. 

In the beginning, I said to myself, "Don't worry, I have a lot of Malay friends and they will assist me to do my assignments. No need to mix around with other foreigners as it will be very difficult". Unfortunately, it turned out not to be what I expected. In the first semester, I had a lot of group projects which involved many students who were more senior, like final year students. Plus, the seniors were so unhelpful and they expected the student like me, to understand quicker although they explained it once. To make things worse, they preferred less meeting and do more individual tasks, and compile the tasks before the due date. I believe this due to most of them were working/part-time students or distance-learning. Other Malays friends were not so helpful as I expected, as they also have their own stuffs to be taken care of.

Since then, I decided I have to do something. Otherwise, I will be screwed up. Frankly, it was very hard to change my mindset and to overcome my shyness when communicating with people in English. Some of the measures I took were, I made friends with other international students and try to approach my group mates as frequent as I can. In the process of making friends, I am glad I befriended with very good people and they became the most reliable colleagues I ever had until my final day in Perth. I am not saying I had ten or twenty international friends, but I had at least five friends who I can rely on. They helped me with my assignments, meetings, presentations, and also widen my social circle. The obvious one was right before the day of thesis presentation. They created a group of final year students and practice the speech in front of others. I was unprepared, no written speech and uncompleted presentation slides. They took it easy, correct my slides, and helped me with my speech. A few hours before the thesis presentation, my good friend invited me to her laboratory and I did the rehearsal in her lab. Several strangers were there, but they helped me although they I did not know them. At that moment, they knew speaking in English was my weakness, nevertheless, they helped me after they laughed their heads off. Hahaha...that was fine by me as long as they helped me and they were very nice.

A few months ago, I accompanied my mother to Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) to settle several things. While waiting for my mother's turn, we jumped into a woman around 50 years old. The woman said hi to us first and introduced herself. She works with SHELL, and as soon as she mentioned the name of her workplace, I was excited. Maybe I could ask her business card and keep it for my future reference. Actually, she is not an engineer, or accountants, or mangers. She is the host or MC for any events held by Shell. It disappointed me a bit because I would love to know more about the engineers in Shell, but that was fine. We talked about several things, like MH370, Shell, Oil and Gas industry and others. When my mother left us to proceed to the counter, the woman spoke with me in English. I was unprepared. After a few minutes, she criticized me and said, "Shell want to hire people with very good command of English and I can see your English is not really good". The statement was bitter but I just kept smile and shut my mouth. After a few moments, she said good luck with my job hunting and she left. I said to myself, that stranger was cruel. She barely know me for several minutes and she criticized me, subsequently made me feel demotivated. I told my  mother about this and she said, "Of course she think her English is very good, as her job is to speak with people. What else to expect,". It soothed me a bit and yeah, I agreed with my mother as engineers as good command of English will be sufficient. Unlike the speakers, they will need to have a PERFECT command of English. However, it does not mean I will keep my English at poor level until I die.

During the job hunting, I attended several interviews, career fairs, and also educational trips. I have met and talked to many engineers and the recruitment people. From that, I could see the performance of speaking skills as well as my English. I want to share what a recruiter said about English when I attended the job interview. There was a time when the recruiter criticized in public about the candidates' ability to converse in English. He was an Australian, from Adelaide and he has been living in Malaysia for 20 years. In the room full of the candidates, he said, "Honestly, I would say none of you can speak English very well. None! However, the company is not looking for a person who is perfect because nobody is perfect. We are looking for people who are willing to learn and improve to become better". According to his statement, I can draw one important message. I believe it is alright if you are not able to speak like a native English speaker. The most crucial thing is you must have a willingness to learn and improve, which would make yourself invaluable.

Some of the candidates also asked me about how to speak English fluently. Maybe they asked me because they think I can converse in English excellently. My answer to their question was, " I am not a good English speaker. However, I must speak in order to convey my message regardless in Malay or English. So, the most important is to not to be afraid to speak and be brave to speak loudly (I realised my voice is so loud when I speak to people. Haha..)". In my opinion, just speak in English and do not worry about the grammar or vocabularies or accent. After you gain the courage to speak, then you should start to worry about the grammar, vocabs, and accent (if you want to have British accent, hahaha. I tried and I failed terribly). Before I go back to Malaysia, I had a final meeting with my Australian friend. She was like a family to me and I always come to her house every week. She reminded me to keep improving my English, otherwise my three years in Australia will be a waste. After I got back to Malaysia, I tried my best to do what she said and I often said to my sisters, similar thing.

In a nutshell, the key to have a good command of English or other languages is to keep learning, improve, and practice it. Do not let the shyness stop you from speaking, if not you will gain nothing. Honestly, I am not the best person to give this advice, however I hope it will help for those who need advices. Apology for many grammar mistakes in this entry, nevertheless, I hope the readers will understand my message.

I think that's all for now. As usual, take care of yourself and see you guys in the next entry. Before that, below is the video I hope you love it and also be brave after hear this song. Salam w.b.t.