Words and Grammar - Essay Example

Introduction

Writing is a serious business and by no means an easy task. Moreover, being an international student it appears to be all the more challenging since there are major differences between the Chinese and English usage of words and grammar. Though the first two years at college were rather challenging, my close association with the language has served to improve my abilities in English usage to a great extent.

As an international student with Chinese as my mother – tongue, I was not too confident about my skills of speaking and writing because I found major differences between the English and Chinese languages. Though I love writing, yet I used to feel handicapped where expression, translating, and grammar were concerned. However, I did not lose heart but tried my best to keep up with it, by widening my vocabulary and clearing major doubts with my professors who were so encouraging. Gradually, as time went by I found that there was positive improvement both in my speech as well as writing abilities.

When comparing the two languages, I came across many major contrasts between them and this is the reason why a Chinese person speaks English in a different manner. One such contrast between the two is the use of verb endings such as ‘ed’ or ‘ing’ which is not found in the Chinese language and this makes it difficult to use a sentence with the correct tense. Another major contrast I found was the use of articles like ‘the’ and ‘a’ especially when used in front of a noun. For example, an English-speaking person would say – ‘The mango is good’ while a Chinese person would say – ‘Mango is good’.

Another challenging aspect when comparing both languages is the use of ‘s’ for plurals in English. This is not the case in Chinese because they convey numbers based on the context of their sentences. There are also major contrasts where pronunciation and sounds are concerned. The sounds in the Chinese language do not exist in the English language and vice versa. These and many other contrasts really pose very challenges to international students but as we make ourselves more familiar with the language it becomes much easier.

In the beginning, it seemed a hard task to write with good expression and not make mistakes but Professor Waluconis has been so patient and encouraging and I feel satisfied that I learned a lot from his classes. I have learned how to organize my thoughts and write a thesis statement which brings out the main ideas in a piece of writing. My speaking and writing abilities have improved because my vocabulary has widened. I learned how to brainstorm, make a draft or outline and then arrange my thoughts in a sequential manner and organize them in a proper manner. I have lost a lot of my inhibition and now I am more confident about my speaking and writing capabilities and I will continue to improve in the areas that are still challenging in the English language.