Helppp, my Engrissh!

Not many of us here English. Full Stop.

Although many are blessed by verbolous English and can communicate in it verbosely..

( Okay, I rephrase..)

Although some communicate in English very well (hmm..sounds easier), still, many thought using 'high-powered' vocabs and writing lonnng sentence are equivalent to 'write Ph.D way'.

As a non-English speaker and having 5 senses those are perfectly Malaysian, I struggled with English. Usually, what i'd do is to write and arrange things in my head several times before I speak. Sometimes it didnt work.

Well, it is hard to manage 'she', 'he', 'active', 'passive' phrases, and intonation at the same time. And, let's not talk about grammar yet, ok ?

I've started learning English more than 3 decades ago yet I still need help from my language adviser. When I started my study, I depended on Robyn a lot, thanks to the sweet and patient lady, I learnt how to structure my sentences and put it in a context (i just make this sentence up, i dont know what does it mean). But yes, I learnt a lot.

I often felt I wasnt good enough to write when I read a journal written by English native. They tend to write long and put 3-5 ideas in the sentence. For example:

"A full spectrum of international investors is present, ranging from open-ended public funds seeking high quality, newly built properties in prime locations to highly leverages third-party managed closed-end funds that often invests in large property portfolios dispersed accross the country........" (Uh-huh, okay.....zzzzzzz.)

I dont feel I am able to make such good sentence.

After 3 years, I realized that my feeling was wrong because I am right. That kind of sentence diverts readers concentration. It put us to sleep or watch The Simpson or write a blog.

It started when my supervisor, J, scratched his head when he got the first read on my sentence. He said "This is confusing, I dont understand". I explained to him and he replied, "but that doesnt saylike what you tell me".

After a few scratches on head, he said to me "Ema, you need to write straight to the point". I argued, "I think I wrote like what they said in the journal".

"But you used complicated words and long sentences".

"I followed their writing style, I want to write like them". Referring to a journal. "Their English is good and have these sophisticated words".

"Ema, what is the point to write a long sentence and use these kind of words if readers do not understand them ?"

"Some of the writers did that. They wrote long in a paragraph. Their journal looks powerful"

"Do you understand them ?"

"No."

"So?"

He..he..

J continued, "I know many students write like that hoping what you are hoping for. But there is no point to write like that if you are only making the readers confuse. You have to make a sense out of your sentence. Do not cramp all ideas in a paragraph, let alone in a sentence".

I listened.

"It's nothing wrong to keep it short. Putting 'sophisticated' words do help sometimes, but not all the time. See here, (referring to my writings), frankly, can you understand what you've written ?" I squinted my forehead...I dont understand my own sentence.

"If you cant understand your own sentence, how can you make people understand what you are telling?".

"Write in a way you yourself feel comfortable in".

"Use words that you feel comfortable with".

I looked at him and smiled, understood. Since that, I never use sophisticated words & J said he understands me better now. Thanks to God, in my own words now, not only J, my housemates (from other background) understand what I've wanted to convey. I am more confident what I write and written.

Here, I learnt another thing and I want to share it with you. When you are writing, either Ph.D or anything, you just need to be confident. If you want to write, share with people things that you are comfortable with, use easy words, dont feel inferior and never think that you are bad.

What more important is, write as though you are educating yourself. Be sincere.

Keep writing !

EMAZULL.