How to master English? Have you found the right ways?

Assalamualaikum wbr. How’s your iman?. Actually, according to title, this question has been raised since I was in secondary school and to be honest, I still haven’t got the answers yet. Are you surprise? But, I have found some draft for the answers.

As TESLian, I have heard many comments about English; ”It was difficult to learn English, although I’ve bought the most expensive book”, “I don’t know what I have learnt from primary until university,” and “I am just cannot speak like a native speaker”. For me, I will just say,”chill….take a deep breath and listen to these two facts.” First, from my observation (inexperienced opinion), in order to say we are good in English, there are two aspects to be looked at (this is based from my experience), which are some people good in writing English and some people are good in speaking English. It is really difficult to find those who can master both. If you ask me, I can say I prefer to speak English rather writing English. That is one of reasons my writing is not very good. So, which one are you?Then, second aspects is that, to make a bench mark or an indicator to achieve good command in English, I think it is enough to know that  as long as we can practice English in our life, we are consider good in English already. In other word, do not make high expectation in mastering English. I was impressed with a taxi driver or even a regular cleaner who can speak English with me although they are not very fluent and do not have that native speaker accent. Do you know that, some people think that Manglish (Malaysia English) is better than other English accents? I was impressed with their confidence and strong desire to speak with me, rather than me, who are still hesitated and unconfident to speak in English, as I am afraid in making mistakes in grammar.

            The first way is, always refresh your intention. For me, I agree that learning English is very stressful sometimes. The reason is simple; English is not our mother tongue. My lecturer once said that to learn language, we need to always practice it. If not, we will lost the ‘rhythm’ or ‘melody’ of its. I would like to relate this with surah Asy-Syarh,94:6 which said ’when there is difficulty, there is an easiness’. Therefore, when you feel fed up, hate learning English, or even want to stop thinking about English, just refresh your intention, and say  ‘istighfar’ several times.

            Then, find friends who are supportive. Reality is, when you speak in English, people will look strange at you. Well, it is not something new to me. For me, I am from urban area, and that paradigm still exists. I like to test my fluency in English by talking to a stranger (at least, if I make some mistakes, we would not see each other, right?). For example, when I was 17 years old, I wanted to test my English fluency. So, I tried to speak during carrier fair at my school. I talked with a nurse from one famous private hospital. I made question and answer session in English with her. Of course, sometimes, it was difficult for me to force my brain to translate Malay to English in a very short time. But, I challenge myself and keep talking in English although I spoke ‘rojak’ language sometimes. At the end, I just feel proud and glad I managed to face my fear in talking English. Sometimes, we just have to try and let the challenge begins. InsyaAllah, Allah’s help is always there for us.

            Next, there is the one thing that makes me wonder. Am I thinking too much? The thing is like this, why do we need to listen to English song from European or else in order to be good in English? Do you have the answer or disagree or have not thought about it?  .  Well, honestly, I was like that before. I was too fanatic with this English band. I even memorised the song’s lyrics; although I know it was wasting time, do not have any Islamic value, about love story and so on… But, one day, I watched a video clip from Maher Zain entitled ‘Open your eyes’. My heart just fell in love with it. The lyrics were so simple and meaningful. Even children can understand it easily. Of course, I, as a university student who has degree should understand it better than them. On that time, I realise that, we have so many ways to learn English. For you, you have your own way and so do I. But, I just want to emphasise that please learn English through Islamic songs. We have Sami Yusof, Maher Zain, Irfan Makki and else. Plus, if you watch You Tube, there are people who change lyrics in English song. For example, song from Chris Brown entitled “With you” is changed to a song about love to Allah. Isn’t it beautiful and creative? Really, it is difficult to do that (as this semester, I have to create a new song adapted from popular nursery rhymes), but, it is not impossible. Isn’t it is ‘cool’ or ‘stylo’ when, while we think of Allah, we also learn English? MasyaAllah, if you do that, that really shows you are a good ‘syabab’ or young generation :)

            Am I talking too much and always hurt your feeling? If I am doing so, I am so sorry and from bottom of my heart, I do want you to feel like that. I just speak from my experience and my observation. Don’t be disappointed once you know that I’m not good in English and yet, still want to give so many lists of advice to you. But, keep supporting me to learn English more. 

            Hope we can be the best young generation or ‘syabab’ in this challenging world. AMIN =)

Prepared by,

Nur Hanisah Binti Mohd Azhar

Academic Bureau

Persatuan Belia Islam Nasional (PEMBINA)

Kuala Terengganu’s branch