Last weekend, we had our Speaking English with Confidence Workshop, and we had so much fun! We were so happy to welcome students who came back for their second time (and even a third time!) because they wanted to take their skills to the next level.
I always say “next level” to the point where I think it sounds cliched or even cheesy.
But what I mean by that is there is always room for improvement.
I mean, if you want to achieve a goal in your life, you have to know the skills you need to achieve that goal. You have to know what your “next level” of growth is.
It might take several “levels” to eventually reach that goal, but take it one level at a time. As we always say to our students: “You can’t rush progress.”
I remember back when I was 14 years old, and our family had just returned to Malaysia from our 8-year stay in England. My level of the Malay language was probably that of a preschooler because I had never attended school in Malaysia.
I knew I would be facing the big PMR exams the next year, so basically I had to catch up on seven years of learning in a language that I had never been formally taught.
While my friends were sharing advanced Malay idioms in class, I was just learning that “kerusi” was not spelled “kursi” and “tokse” is not standard Malay!
So I figured I needed to start from the beginning.
As I’ve said, my level of Malay was probably that of a preschooler so my “next level” was Standard One Malay.
I bought Bahasa Melayu (BM) text books from Standard One. After going through those books and I felt I could move on to the next level. So I bought BM text books for Standard Two and so on.
Of course, learning BM wasn’t too difficult for me because it’s the first language in this country, so I was always speaking and listening to it.
But my point here is that I knew what my level of Malay was (preschool level), and I needed to go through many levels to get to my desired level (PMR-ready level).
This applies for learning English, too.
If you’re a beginner, don’t feel ashamed that you may have to read books that your children are reading. You can probably advance quicker as an adult anyway.
Plus, no one will know except for your kids. You could probably read those books together with them and consider it as quality time with your children. Maybe sit down and enjoy English cartoons with them too. 🙂
So what’s your next level of learning? And how are you going to get there?
