I survived English in pain

In 2005 I gave myself a chance to experience a life abroad. Since I like English, and always desire to improve it, so I asked my dad to go to Australia.

I was glad my English was good enough to reach to probably the highest level among general English courses; my course was called English for Academic Purposes. As the name told itself that it aimed at students who needed English for use in higher education or university. I knew it right away that it was not gonna be a fun class like General English ones. But I gave myself a try. First day at school I met lots of new friends. They were from Korea, Indonesia, China, India, Romania and Germany. It was a good combination because I was an only Thai student in this class. Being the only one there from Thailand was a good motivation for me to put more effort to be able to communicate with my class and teacher.

A few weeks went by and everything seemed fine. But I started to feel that I was the weakest one. Everyone in my class was quite smart as most of them were preparing to study in master’s degree. I felt down and stressed because studying academic English was not fun at all. The class was very intense as it’s all about reading, writing, presenting and discussing on social issues. But I finally completed it though. This experience made me realize how hard it would be when I studied higher. Since then, an idea of earning a master’s degree abroad was just never been in my mind. But at least I was proud of myself to reach to this level of English.

Using English in general is fun, but once it comes to an academic one, it is completely not! Just like when we do a piece of translation, an easy piece of writing is fun, but a difficult one can make you in tears. But remember everyone that no pain, no gain.