Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My First English Class!

Some time back, I wrote about signing up for English Classes. Well, it's been almost 3 months ago now and I finally signed up for my Elementary English Class. I've always wanted to learn to speak better English. Since coming to Singapore, I have picked it up a little but I still have a long way to go. I think the most important thing is to have someone to practice with, and that is the toughest part in Singapore. Singapore is a multi-racial country and most people are able to speak a good level of mandarin. When they know you are from China, they immediate start speaking to you in Mandarin.

While I did not really like my stint at Bread Junction, there was one good thing about it. As the staff were mostly Malays, they only speak to me in English, and like it or not, I have to learn it. We got along quite well, with a help using our hands to gesture and make some signs! Sometimes when it does help, we even make funny sounds! Quite funny actually!

For my first class, we were made to buy some photocopied notes at SGD3 per set. Not very impressive notes as you can see from the picture, but good enough to learn I guess. For those of my readers who are new, a friend is helping me translate and maintain this blog despite her busy schedule. I am very appreciative. She wanted me to start this to help me earn some extra money from Google Adsense but so far, it's not alot. Nevertheless, she's been a great help and mentor actually!

The class that I am attending is Elementary English and we have about 7 students, 5 of which are Chinese. I am glad to see so many Chinese learning English. Two are locals. The first day, we learn basic alphabets. I already know some of these as I use Pinyin to type sms and to do this, I have to understand basic sounds and letters. Nevertheless, it was a good revision and I learned some new words too.

Just like a bad student, I sat right a the back of the class, playing with my pen. Naturally, I do pay attention too while taking some pictures for you of course. Ha ha! Our teacher is a middle age lady who had taught English in school before. That's good because I am impressed with the Singapore schooling system and if she is good enough for the schools here, she must be pretty good!

I am really looking forward to the next few lessons where they actually teach you conversational English. Afterall, I think for me, being able to converse is more important than knowing how to read and write well.

3 comments:

  1. What you said is true about people wanting to speak to you in Chinese the moment they know you're from China. That seems to be the issue. However, I've noticed that if you persist to speak to them in English, they'll reply in English. Make it a point to speak English if you want to improve fast even its broken English. Its equally important to learn how to read and write simple sentences, otherwise, how to read and send text messages in English? Like your attitude and determination. Press on!!

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  2. Thank you "2livetoday". I must speak more English...

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  3. I used to teach English tuition and I major in Journalism news writing. Once in a while during my lunch time I will teach my China nurses some simple English. If you need any help on the side, you can always find me on Facebook. I'm requesting a Add Friend to you on facebook. My picture icon is a pink bear.

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