How is your English?

I consider my English (both verbally & written) average. Or a little bit below average. Whatever suits you I guess. It is easy to say when you are the one who judge yourself. But when it comes to when someone will judge you, there you will feel different and try to put yourself in a higher group of pyramid where ppl speak/write English well. Oh btw, I said I am below average because I'm still using google translate to translate some of the words that I don't understand and my vocabulary is kinda poor. I also believe there are a lot of ppl outside there who can speak and write English much much better than me but like what ppl say first step for improvement is to admit your weakness.

Anyway, I bumped into one blog belongs to a guy who has a very good writing skill in English. Though I'm not sure whether he as good as that when speaking but I am really fascinate on how he uses the language and his vocabulary of English is so rich considering English is his second language. Envy envy but of course in a good way. You can read his blog here. I love the way how he constructs his well crafted story where he tells all the details until the reader can imagine and feel the same way how he feels. He definitely should be a novelist and yeah there lies another example of being detail is very important (one of my 2012 dreams is to be detail in every aspect of my life hee)

Btw I found his blog when I was hacking into my bf's twitter account. Can't say hacking actually. I just know his password and he definitely won't be mad if he knows I opened it. LOL.

Oh yeah if you ask why all this hassle about English? We are in Malaysia, we should speak Malay? If we will debate about that issue, I think it won't end. I sincerely believe English is a crucial language that we need to learn because it is an international language and our country is heading towards to become a fully developed country where everyday we will deal with a lot of foreign ppl for business. As much as English is important, to learn about Malay is also important. Because it is our origin language and it defines who you are.

Anyhow, when is actually the time that you need to speak in English?

- For a presentation/interview

- In a meeting

- When giving directions to foreigner

- Ordering meals in a fancy restaurant

Before this I met a guy who wanted to order additional meals but it was very difficult for him and he even used the wrong word of English. To make it worse, he stuttered. Me and my bf on the next table didn't know how to react and instead of continuing with our conversation, we kept silent. Seriously poor the guy and some more he was treating his family. I blamed the waiter because this is Malaysia. Even you are a foreigner, you should know how to speak Malay a little bit. Fool.

My bf also believe that his English and vocabulary is not very good but I watched before the video when he did his presentation, he actually very good. The way he spoke was so convincing and ppl were more focus on what he said rather than checking his grammar or whatsoever. After that I believe when speaking in English what matter is feeling confident about yourself. Here I list down something that I did before that really help to build up my confidence while speaking in English (useful during presentation or interview) :

Chill and relax . Don't say the word 'don't panic' in your head because you will seriously end up panic.

Don't put your hope too high (if you are in a presentation to get a tender or for your final project). Because when the hope is high, you will speak in a rush, stutter and forget some points. The proper, detail and complete preparation should be done prior to the presentation.

Let your words flow. Don't try to memorize the exact sentences that you practiced beforehand. If you forget some of the words, you will stuck.

If you cannot control your panic, think everyone in front you is stupid and don't know anything. It really works!

Always practice in a relax environment. The relax environment let you to make mistakes and not pressured about speaking English. This really helped me to improve faster.

I really use above methods before a presentation or interview. However there were times where I forgot to control my panic and at the end it caused me to speak very fast and they couldn't understand my words. Well I hope in the future I won't panic!

Till then. Assalamualaikum.

p/s: all pictures credit to google