Reflective report
English, for many centuries dating back to when the Germanic tribes invaded Britain, has developed and become more better in time. This is the same situation I am experiencing at the moment. Like English, my English language to start with was not so great but right now I feel as if it is improving by the day.
I was born in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan where the main language is Arabic, but English is spoken by the majority of native Africans in the city. In kindergarten and the first year of primary school, I was taught completely in Arabic although we were given minor English classes here and there. To cut the story short, my upbringing in Sudan was solely Arabic taught. However, my first and important connection I had with the English language is when I came to the Netherlands at the age of 5. I started primary school at a British school and that is when I started learning the language. Of course as a child the English language was completely bizarre to me because it sounded nothing like Arabic. Slowly but surely my English was improving and at around nine years old I found myself to be reading English books, perfectly.
In secondary school, I was surprisingly permitted to take part in English A1 higher level as part of my International baccalaureate study, which is exclusively made for English native speakers coming from an English background. I did well and I passed the course but the most important part about it was that I learnt many things. The two short years I was doing the international baccalaureate, my English language sky rocketed from mediocre to what I consider good, and I am very proud of my progression.
Now that I am studying international business management at the University of Groningen, I can really look back on my achievements in awe. English in this course seems to be in the same level with the English I had in high school and this is of course good news for me since I do not have to worry about catching up. Before I came to university, in all honesty, I expected that the language was going to be very complex and hard to comprehend, and this is has always been my impression on universities. Although sometimes I don’t not understand a couple words here and there, I always manage to somehow figure out their meaning simply by trying to find out what the message the author is trying to convey, or the related words next to the unknown word. I learned this technique from an old teacher that always used to tell me to write down a list of words I didn’t know and make sure I knew them by the end of the week.
Furthermore, I expect the next coming three years to be challenging but doable. I believe that my English will continue to improve and that I will be seeing great results in the future. My advice to first year student of next year is to not be afraid and to make sure to read plenty of English books, magazines etc, to develop their English.
