Sakinah Abdul Aziz

Obviously, due to many days of unwritten entries, it is due to la paresse that kicked in ever since my exam ended. On a more serious note, I'll be taking an international french exam this Thursday. For these past few days, I've been seriously questioning myself why on earth did I decide to sit for this exam, and why B2 level?! Impulsiveness? Boldness? Stupidity? I really really hope that the 4 papers I'll be sitting for won't be so hard on me. Anyway Monsieur (don't tell you which one!) has been so nice, can you imagine, him, photocopying past exam papers for me and lending me 3 of his books!? Again, I cannot help but to notice how charmant he is. Anyway, ever since Paris (I think I've mentioned this a few times before here), I just cannot get sick of 'Endless Love'. Yes the Mariah Carey and Luther's version. I was on the bus last night, all mentally drained, perhaps mostly on my left side of the brain, for I've used it up to painstakingly comp...

You know, the bad thing about not having the time to blog is that, I keep relying on the "save drafts" option, which obviously haven't been good at producing entries for a month! Well for obvious reasons, it's either I lost the mood to continue where I left off, or that I couldn't bring myself to sort out my thoughts well. So I shall give a summary/accumulated/condensed version of what's been written on my "save drafts"; - How much I have to read my psych texts - How heavy my eyelids were while doing so - How fast time flies - Eid - Being known as the "polar bear" by the MNO tutor, sheesh - Sat for a French listening comprehension test without knowing it was on that day, double sheesh - Universal Studios - Best popcorn bought, everrr. Voila, saves lotsa words ain't it? So that while I'm here I can blog about more recent things. So finally, I am so over and done with the mid-terms. Of course the pending presentations are still not d...

So this morning, I totally felt defeated. I guess language acquisition is really hard. Really, really hard. I went back to reflect upon myself how in the world do I acquire English and Malay in such a progressively easy way. And I realise that the only way to acquire language so well is to speak it everyday. And by everyday, it means, every single moment, every single opportunity you take to communicate with someone else. To utilise it in our speech everyday, and to listen to others when they speak. Because otherwise, you can never get across what you really want to say, and you can never understand what others want to convey. Acquiring a third, forth, fifth (and so on) languages at a generally older age IS hard. I used to have this confidence that if you throw me in a French-speaking country, I think I would be able to hold conversations. Yes, that's true. Normal conversations at a rather average, slow-ish speed. But I don't want to feel limited when I communicate (I do admit ...