First Day of School

Today is my first day of school...for my "preparatory class", which I thought would be helpful. Well, it does to a certain extend. It's called Academic Skills, and I thought it would be like TCS (Telecommunication Skills) back in TP Eng, where they teach us how to write report, resumes, cover letters and of course, communication. Boy was I wrong. Mom "persuaded" me to take up this class, which is a 5 weeks course (thank God it's only 2hours twice weekly) and IS FREE (U/P: $500). Dotz. So go lor, since I've time to spend and burn. Well, classes starts today, and will end on the first week of July, where I'll have another 4 - 6 weeks break before actual class (marketing and management..the real hell) starts.

I set alarm and woke up at 930am today, where I proceeded to wash up, have breakfast (instant noodles), and nua. I even went online and played a game or two of Viwawa Sushido. Not forgetting to bug some of my friends online. And then, since it's the first day and I've to search for my class and all, I left house at 1230pm. (Class starts at 2pm) I bumped into my neighbour who started telling me that her son wana study Uni also, but can't get in bla bla bla, yada yada yada...I kept reminding her that I'm going for class. And she finally let me off about 10 - 12min later. Shit. And I missed my bus. And there's no bus in sight. Started sending messages to Sue and Ling, bugging them. Keke. Heng bus came, took MRT (I'm so proud of myself) and reached Tiong Bahru Plaza at 138pm. -_-" So I took a puff and called Shannen. Slowly walked to school and I actually forgot what subject I'm taking!!!! Had Shannen to log into my Yahoo account and check. Finally found my class..B-303. Go up, nobody. Door locked. My lecturer came at 2pm ON THE DOT. -_-"

My lecturer is Dr. Steve, from Aust. But he does not have the Aust accent. I couldn't understand him. According to him, the class only has.....SIX students, including me. But 4 of us turned up today. After a little introduction, he passed the course schedule to us. And that's when I realised...I signed up for an English lesson. Not report writing or presentation. Purely English lesson. Today's lesson: Punctuations, Clear Writing and Verbs/Nouns/etc. Really faint. for the first hour, we went through what verbs, nouns etc are. He gave us some example of nouns, then give us a passage and told us to point out what the nouns are. I mean, after so many years, I know how to write proper English. But what the heck is a noun and verb? I found 5 verbs and 5 nouns in one paragraph when the correct answers are 3 verbs and 7 nouns. *Faint* I need more practice. By the time one hour was up, I'm seriously glazing at my eyes and thinking of what to blog tonight. =P

2nd hour, we touched on punctuations and clear writing. What the fuck is clear writing? Clear writing, as Dr Steve pointed out, is writing where it's straight to the point. There're 2 types of writing: one that lets people learn and understand, and the other is one that doesn't let people learn and understand. He gave us 3 examples. First story, consisted of 130 words. He let us read, and takes away the passage. Next he asked us 6 questions, of which I gotten 4 questions correct. It's something like comprehension without the passage as a guidance. The next 2 passages, I could not understand. All the chim words like anilhealation or whatever. And when Dr Steve asked 3 questions, NONE OF US could answer. To this, he joked," The author just wants to show people that she's clever enough to use all these terms, but is selfish enough not to let us learn. She is afraid that we'll all be clever like her." Haha! Damn funny, but nobody in class laughed at this joke. I found myself silly to be laughing at his many hidden jokes when my classmates aren't even smiling. -_-" It's akin to me laughing alone in a cinema at a hidden joke. They just didn't get the joke.

Anyway, after this, I realised the need to be precise and straight to the point. No use using arduous, convoluted, abstruse or unintelligible words when all can be summed up to one word: difficult / chim. LoL. Dr Steve says it's no use using colourful words because simplicity is the best. Especially in simple English when people can understand. At least I know people won't curse and swear when they don't really understand what the word means. =]

But seriously, I don't know how I can survive without typing. I have to keep writing and writing. Think I need to write more. LoL. I had complained to Ling and Feng AND my parents regarding my boring class. When they asked me if I still want to continue this class, I told them I will. I mean, I'm the one who said I'll go. So go I will and complete this course. At least I'm seeing the other side of English. And suddenly, I realised I'm not that eloquent in this language at all. I need to learn more. I WANT to learn more. I'm a changed person...or am I? =X

It felt weird going back to study after working for 2 years. I felt out of place with the youngsters in school. I felt that I dress OLD. I FEEL old. Like I explained to Ling; I want to be like them..but at my age, there's a certain maturity I've to act..sigh. It's complicated. =] Oh ya, I took bus to Vivo and waited for dad to pick me up. At Vivo, I bought myself a cup of iced mocha and Delifrance. I need to cut down on these..it burnt $10 from my wallet....sigh. Can't afford too much of these, unless Feng's with me. Keke.. Can't wait for Friday...