Writing in English

Today I want to start to write in English again, after for some time I did not do such a thing. Though I learned English since junior high school, but still English is not my first language. So writing in English is not a natural thing for me to do. As I remember the first time I had to write a full essay in English when I was studied philosophy for my master degree. A few of that writing can be found here in this blog, and maybe you will find that my writing in English is not grammar good (including this one).  J

Most of my essay in English is about Greek Philosophy because my teacher for that course is from Holland and he cannot read and write in Indonesian. I think that situation came as blessing in disguise for me, because if not for that course maybe I wouldn’t start to write in English. As I can remember my Greek Philosophy teacher used to say to us in the classroom that most of our writing in English often ignore the proper phrase in English (I assume this would be the same as grammarly messy J). However the show must go on, I still have to write in English at that time, until eventually I pass that course.

After I finish my master degree, I haven’t written much in English. There is no full essay, just a few line or paragraph of message for correspondence through e-mail and abstract for academic paper.  Most of my essay in English at that period used a translator service, so practically there is no improvement in my English writing. This “no improvement” situation also affirmed by my TOEFL prediction score which did not move from 540 point (between 2008 and 2012). And last year I gave a try to take IELTS prediction test, and below here you could see the score details.

Of course there is a reason for everything, and practice makes perfect. So this time I decide to write in English again as practice for the sake of my future. My colleagues in tourism destination department encourage me to pursuit my PhD degree not in Indonesia, but in other country, and of course the international language today in most of campus in the world is English. So inevitably I must improve my writing in English, and certainly not just writing but all aspect in English language.

For me there are a few obstacles to write in English. The first one is matter of vocabulary, especially choices of word to write in English when the first actual word that pops up in my head is in Indonesian. This problem in fact could be solve by using a dictionary or translator. But still could you imagine how much time for me to write while back and forth referring to dictionary or translator, not to mention the typo that often happen. The second is of course the proper grammar. How come this wouldn’t be a problem for me when my first knowledge of grammar is in Indonesian and I practice it a lot until now, not to mention the sense or language style that I familiar is in Indonesia. For this entire obstacle there is no other way to solve it then to find a translator or an editor, hahahah….. My bad, of course the right answer is practice and gets proper training from English teacher, so she/he could give feedback about my writing, and helps me improving. This solution needs time and money investment. So for doing that I have to prepare first to spend it later, hahaha….

Ok, I think this is enough for now. Hopefully I will write in English in the near future.