Looking back at ES1102

Twelve weeks of English learning journey with Dr Misty which initially was thought to be an arduous one has turned out to be a fruitful learning process for me. There are always essential pointers and key takeaways from her lessons that are extremely helpful in building up my English knowledge. Also, i am impressed with the new forms of teaching such as audio feedbacks, creating blog entries that Dr Misty has introduced in her lessons. For instance, audio feedback has served as an interactive platform for me to understand my mistakes clearly despite being away from school. I could follow her explanations and correct my mistakes competently without the physical presence of a tutor. 

More importantly, I am truly grateful that Dr Misty was able to identify a major flaw in my academic writing which I believed it has always been an issue for me in the organisation of my writing. I was not focus in delivering my main ideas through those sentences and thus ended up overloading my essay with redundant information that do not support my argument. With the guidance of Dr Misty, I was taught to always present my main idea at the start of the sentence to give readers a clearer understanding without having to skim through chunks of irrelevant information. In addition, staying focus and get straight to the point in every sentences has improved my organisation in writing tremendously. Through this, I have learnt that academic writing in essence is to produce a succinct piece of work with good substance. This has definitely been a key takeaway for me from ES1102 lessons.

All in all, English learning has pervades every aspects of our life and I believe it goes beyond just these 12 weeks of lessons. I should not resist English learning during my life after ES1102 lessons and instead, continue to be empowered by English language and Dr Misty to enhance my academic writing skills. 

Reflection

Although this may come off as a bizarre post that i am going to share today but i believe it is an issue worth for us to take a step back and dwell upon.

A year ago after my A-levels examination, i have partook in many different aspects of jobs ranging from administrative office work to retail to food and business(F&B) and i would say my short one-month stint at Toss&Turn Salad Bar has definitely got to be the most thought-provoking one. 

To put it simply, my job description was rather straightforward; scoping the salad dishes as requested by the customers. What sorely triggered me during this whole month of experience was watching a handful of thin skeletal body frame women with serious deep sunken eyes and hollow cheeks patronizing the shop at almost a daily basis. The portion they ordered was miserably small(few did not even finish their bowl!) and it was disheartening to witness this blinded mass of individuals obsessive of attaining a 'slim' body is slowly transcending into young teenage girls today. 

The first thing that struck my mind was what has the media been truly feeding our impressionable youngs with? Certainly, the ubiquitous presence of powerful media platforms such as TV, google and facebook with commercials harping on the best remedies for weight loss, skinny models strutting down the walkway on reality shows , online blogshop models jumping on the bandwagon of 'eating clean' (which unconsciously seeing themselves starving to achieve that 'perfect' figure) creates this new obsession of becoming thin. 

Personally as a teenage girl, i cannot deny that this negative media influence is efficacious and it has impacted my health to a certain extent. I used to survive on eating only a small portion of fruits and vegetables daily which made me feeling weak and lethargic for the entire day. My immune system fell and my parents grew increasingly worried. Knowing that this extreme eating habit is definitely not realizing, i was sensible and quick enough to switch to a proper diet everyday with adequate amount of exercise. After this incident, i become aware that there are many different possible avenues to adopt a healthy lifestyle and starvation is truly not the only option. On the other hand, we youths should learn to suppress the growing pressure of being socially accepted within us because ultimately, there is no one true definition of beauty. Instead, embracing ourselves, accepting our flaws and appreciating our inner beauty to me is what that matters.