By Nur Adilah Ramli
Since the days of primary school, as far as I can remember, I have always been biased to English subject. That is not to say that I’m good at it; far from it, conversing the language and writing it can still be daunting until today, in spite of having learnt English for fifteen years the minimum.
But my desire to major in English remains intact.
However, the Malaysian University English Test (MUET), was a slap in the face.
“Band 3”. That is the grade.
It was during my Foundation studies that I sat for MUET, and being an English major purely by choice, the pressure to score doubled, the expectation skyrocketed.
But “Band 3”. That is the grade.
“Band 3” made me question my being in English course. Needless to say, I became dispirited. And I carried the baggage – that I wasn’t good enough to belong to this course – for a year or so. Surrounded by course mates who are so natural using English, my self-esteem went down lower than “Band 3”.
Even after stepping into my very first semester of undergraduate studies, I found myself still cursed by “Band 3”. The first semester went too fast, and I’m glad it did for it was only in the second semester that I could finally assure myself that being in this course is actually…a prayer granted.
It was just a simple note of acknowledgment, but powerful enough to break my wall of insecurity. For that, I owe my lecturer who might be oblivious of the charm she worked on me.
For she believed in my words, I started to give myself the same trust. I may have been monotonous in my speech, but I don’t have to be monotonous in my writing, too. So instead of frowning upon “Band 3” further, I made a conscious decision to improve on my language command.
The spirit gave birth to my first article, and a few others, on online news portals – Free Malaysia Today, The Malaysian Insider and The Sun Daily. Also, the courage mustered led me to a course-based platform – The BENL Insider – which allows me to share some pieces written with hope and enthusiasm, and sealed with a heartfelt desire to benefit others one way or another.
I believe that sharing our thoughts is good as aside from letting people see our views, in return, we also get to read their thoughts. Through the comment section, we can learn about the readers’ thoughts, which may be compatible with, or different from what we have in mind.
It’s good to get the sense of approval when our thoughts match the readers’, but it’s also good to have clashes of thoughts because then, we’ll get to expand our horizon by learning to view an issue from the perspectives of others.
Come to think of it, “Band 3” is not exactly a curse; instead, it’s truly a blessing in disguise.
“Band 3” is a blessing for it has taught me that to fail is actually to learn.
With regard to learning English, some people learn the code through music. That doesn’t quite work for me as except for some oldies and a few slow-beat songs, I can hardly recall any other music genres on my playlist.
Other than music, some people learn English (or any other languages) through movies. That also doesn’t contribute much to my language learning for I don’t really watch movies to begin with. Ask me about any recent movies, I can guarantee you that I fail at your first question.
But I’m blessed to have found social media, which works wonder on my language development.
Upon getting myself a smartphone, reading anything online, which is super convenient, has been my way of keeping in touch with the world. Mostly through Facebook, I can gain access to all sorts of news sources just by hitting the “follow” button. By simply clicking the links provided on my news feed, I can open many articles and read them at any time of my convenience.
To read “an article a day” is a ritual I live by every day. Be it a 100-word short essay, as long as I consistently read, I can polish my language and increase my knowledge. Writings by our very own Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad are indeed capable of provoking our thoughts, and I often check out on chedet.cc to learn from this man.
YouTube also does miracle on my English language learning. By subscribing to a few channels of my favourite, I can say that Ryan Higa and Ellen Degeneres do not only give me a dose of entertainment, but also teach me a lot about life, and that includes language learning.
With respect to word sounding, although for me, American accent is easier to comprehend, to my ears, British accent is more appealing. Despite having none of the accents mentioned, to satisfy my ears, I watch a lot of videos by Mehdi Hasan. As he often appears in debates, which also happen to be of my interest, I regularly catch him on YouTube. But I also frequently listen to the controversial Irshad Manji, whose American accent somehow appeals to my ears.
The methods of learning English are indeed infinite! For those who find English important, they’ll work on ways to better their language proficiencies. For a “Band 3” English major, to be exceptional in this language has always been a life goal, thus, to reach that stage, efforts must be as grand as the goal itself.***