The Reflections

Yes, it's been the busiest '2 weeks in class'-listening, studying, homework, critical writing..... in my entire life....am I exaggerating things? :)

I'm trying to be 'positive' to complete my E7 class successfully. I'm really worried thinking about the exam on Week 5. Hopefully things will be fine as I just can't wait to start my PhD. Sometimes I feel studying bachelor and masters are much more easier and less worried than studying language. To be honest, I have difficulty whenever studying language even in my own language which is Bahasa Malaysia. I have studied Mandarin and French before, but I can't remember a thing about it.

Well, these are the reflections for the 4 skills I need to gain:

Writing
Really learn a lot from both Kate and Mario. In my goals I've written to write an essay responding to any news that I read from newspaper. However due to short of time (after class, I'm a full time mother for 2 kids), whenever reading, I just map all the points in my head instead of writing it. Apart from that I only try my best during the class and doing homework during my journey to class (on tram-it's an hour journey!).

Listening
I've been listening to television at home and radio in car. I have no other language option, like in my hometown, I can choose to listen to Malay, English, Chinese or Indian radio. So I feel like I'm getting to understand quite well the way how Australian speak. But sometimes, when they are talking too fast, I'm lost... especially when trying to understand their conversation on trams..they were too fast...

Speaking
I'm trying to speak English at home with my husband and kids, but I couldn't make it. I can't expresses my true feeling especially when to show my angriest to my 6 years old daughter. She can write and understand simple English, but it's really just hard to do it... However, I'm still trying my best to improve my vocabulary during speaking or oral presentation. Having a vocab book is really good as whenever I find a new vocabulary I can write it down. I'm going to proceed with that vocab book until the end of my PhD study..hopefully.

Reading
This is the best. Yes I do love reading very much, but reading a serious material for serious issue such as globalization, economy, law makes me sometimes have to read it over and over again. Whenever in class doing reading material I feel like I'm able to answer the comprehension question. Unfortunately not all are correct, maybe my mind just distracted while reading especially a long article. However, I can say myself is quite able to adapt with such reading material due to a lot of practice from Kate, Mario and Danielle. I will never stop reading and trying to understand the whole story about what I read.

Basically, that's my reflection until 3rd week. Maybe I will add some more If I have discovered anything new.