My English Language learning journey

Learning a language was never easy.

Learning a language can be a very tedious process. It tires you out both physically and mentally. If it wasn't for my english teacher when i was in secondary school, i would not have been able to pull through the journey. It was her unwavering support and patience which motivated me to work even harder to repay her efforts.

I still remember the time when my kindergarten teacher taught us the alphabet song to make us remember the 26 different alphabets. This was the only enjoyable moment i had while learning english language when i was young. As i grew up, learning the language gradually became dull and uninteresting. If only language could be learnt and taught in a fun manner, wouldn't it be great?

I could barely catch up to what my teacher was teaching in class. It came as a struggle to me while i was coping with my english classes when i was in secondary school. The number of techniques and skills taught were increasingly challenging and some would even require countless practices to fully grasp the concept. It really hit me hard when i had  received my first mid-term exam results for the english papers. For the first time ever, i actually failed my english language. I could still remember vividly that i had scored a total of 48 marks out of 100 marks. It was so unbearable to even hold the papers in my hands as i could not even look up and focus on what my teacher was going through. I could not believe that after countless practices and revisions, all i would amount to was a FAIL. To me, it came as a shock in the first place. However, the failed papers gradually turned into a really big motivation for me to work even harder towards my end of year examinations. It was truly a satisfying moment to see that all my hard work had paid off when i received my english papers for the end of year examinations. To others, it might not be a really good score but to me, it was far more than just a grade. To me, having even a grade of B4 beats having an A1 as i know that all my efforts had paid off having completed the heaps of past year papers and the countless consultations with my english teacher. She was genuinely happy to see me improve by leaps and bounds.

Who could have thought that someone like me, who failed my english language papers, would have chosen english literature as one of my subject combinations in secondary 3. I was actually quite surprised by my own decision but that did not stop me from choosing the subject. The beauty of language captivated me and it only sparked my interest to study the language further through literature. And guess what? I managed to pull through and scored a B3 for my literature exams in the o levels!

Learning a language is never easy but, with perseverance and commitment, one can always achieve the impossible! It is through failure that i managed to see the areas that i need to work on and adjust my studying methods to achieve better quality results. Failure is not always something bad. It could be a good thing that i failed because i get to know and realize the importance of my mistakes. It is alright to fail sometimes, but I must never fail again knowing what failed.