I’m not sure if this post will be accepted by fellow editors/ FOYers. If you are reading this, then I guess they agreed it was OK. Chun See’s post on “How to do well in English” made me remember how I did well…

Just read Chun See’s post on “How to do well in English“. He gives sound advice about the need to “like it”. And to read lots of books. Apparently there was a radio show called “The Chief Examiner Explains”. Interesting… I’m much younger than Chun See (exactly two decades I think) so I’ve not heard of that radio show. Reading his post, I reflected on how I did well in English (I scored ‘As’ for English throughout my school years, though I can’t say the same for half the subjects).

I think some credit goes to regular episodes of Sesame Street (see Wikipedia entry). Of course (as pointed out by Chun See), good teachers helped. A lot.

But thinking back, it was my parents who really helped me do well. They weren’t teachers. They spoke English but we spoke mainly Mandarin and dialect at home (with my grandma then). Hardly any spoken-English at home. So how did I manage to do well?

My mother would let me buy English books sometimes (not always). I remember one time there was a booksale in primary school (Bookworm Club, I think). My mother gave me money to buy some story books. I think my first purchase was one book from the Encyclopedia Brown series and three others were comics. Mum didn’t say “don’t buy comics”. She left me to read. Deliberately or not I don’t know, but I guess that tactic worked.

My father was also an influence. After dinner, he would bring my siblings and I to ‘Oriental’ shopping centre where we lived (I don’t think there’s any ‘Oriental’ now). Without fail, he would bring us to the books section and let us browse to our hearts content. For some reason, he didn’t bring us to the library (I have to ask him that some day).

One time, my father also bought home a book on “Writing Good Essays” and left it on the dining table. He never said a word about it. I doubt it was for him (his job didn’t require him to write). Subsquently, I used that study guide and it helped me quite a bit in composition writing etc.

The above occurred during my younger days, below the age of 12. I have never seen my parents read a novel at home, other than regular subscription of Newspapers (I think that also helped push me along in reading). So whether by design or luck, I really have my parents to thank for my comfort in using English to express myself.