In Indonesia, English is one of the compulsory subjects in public school. My first encounter with English is when I was in kindergarten. I learned how to count in English, basic vocabularies and children's songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider. For me, from primary school until high school, English has always been easy as I could ace my tests without having the real need to study hard.
It was when I needed to prepare for TOEFL test that I realized that my English was not that good. Sure, I did well on my school tests, but I never really used English in my daily life. I realized that I did not read that much in English, nor could I speak fluently in it. I was always confused when I had to write in English, especially when it concerned academic related matters. I felt that my foundation was not strong. I only learned English because it was compulsory in school but I did not put any extra efforts to really learn English as a language. Now that I realized it, I want to not only learn English properly but also master it.
When I enrolled to NUS, I needed to take the QET and assigned to this ES1102 class as I got the band 2. I did not feel ashamed or something like that because all my Indonesian seniors told me that being in the band 2 is very common among us. On the contrary, I feel happy to be able to take this class so I can polish up my English. I will try my best to pay attention in class and I hope my another English learning journey in ES1102 with Brad and you guys will be useful yet fun :).
Edited on 3rd February 2014
