[20090911] Practice Enough To Be Confident

To express what I have in my mind is a very important skill which is hard to get, especially if it's not in one's mother tongue. That's what I strongly felt in GEK class last week.

I am used to write many different kinds of writings in Korean, such as letters, diaries, academic reports, and so on. However, English is my second language, and in Korea, we usually focus on just reading when we learn foreign languages. That's why I had a lot of difficulties with making stories based on pictures that professor gave us. The first problem is that I am not used to write in English, so my vocabulary or expression is not enough to convey what I think. Moreover, that fact makes me feel hard to be confident in my English.

I know that in terms of language learning, practicing is the best way. That's the reason I came to Singapore, to learn both English and Chinese. By attending classes, meeting many people from other countries, and by just living in Singapore, I cannot get away from speaking English and Chinese.(Of course I don't need Chinese that much but sometimes when I want to order food, there are some people who just speak Chinese, even in PGP Residence where foreign students live. Actually it is good for me to practice my Chinese!)  As I speak English and Chinese, I found out that my problem is not related to language itself, such as grammar, vocabulary, etc., but more related to my confidence and attitude.

For example, when I talk to Korean friends who are not that good at English, I feel confident and my English competence seems to be better than usual. However, when I talk to English native speakers, I feel like getting smaller and smaller by myself. It seems that the level of confidence definitely shifts relatively. However, I believe I can change it. I can change my mind and try to be confident everytime. Although it would be not that easy, I think it is possible on the condition that I put enough effort on language learning and practice it again and again. Now my own conclusion has come out
; Practice enough to be confident.

As I have learned English for almost 10 years and Chinese for about 4 years, I have my own opinion that there exists a clear(and thick) line that I cannot go across as a foreign language learner. I mean, people can improve their foreign language competence to some degree, but there is a limit they cannot overcome. Nevertheless, I still have long long way to go to get even to the line, and I need to put a lot of effort and time on my way.
For this reason, I cannot waste my time here in Singapore being lazy.