The F-Word: My Poor English

Do you think it's a friendship? Haha I'll bite you!

Before I came to NDSU, I had no clue about this campus. What I was thinking about education in the US was all about Harvard University, Georgetown University, or UC Berkeley. Even Fargo, the city where North Dakota State University or NDSU is located, I had no idea at all. When I got the placement to get to NDSU, I thought: What am I supposed to do there?

But as the time goes on, I figured that I can do many things here: study, watching movies, shopping, hanging out with friends and many more. However, I can’t enjoy those things as well because one thing: My poor English!

Before I got here, I thought that my English would be enough to help me understand what’s going on in my classes, what my friends are speaking about, or the conversation in movies I am watching. But in fact, it is nothing! That is now going on as my biggest challenge here, at NDSU, Fargo.

I felt that I started from zero. I have to study English much more intensively. The first week I came here, I did not understand at all what my teachers talked about, and I was afraid of hanging out with some friends because I could not speak English well.
Now I figured what is going on: the English that I learnt in Indonesia is so different from what I have now. I learnt English formally and mostly in written format. Even I practiced in very seldom. This obviously brought me end up with “My poor English.”

Now, I am still learning and learning. Thanks to my openness, I found many new friends here. They are from different background. Some of them are crazy, some of them are nice, some of them are, yeah, in between. From them, I’ve been learning English a lot, from many kinds of expression to many kinds of swearing words (what?!); yet it’s not that good enough now. Besides, I figured that in fact there are some different ascents among English speakers: British, American, Black, and Asian.

So far, I really like it here. I believe that my English is getting better and better. “I hope my English can be like yours,” I said to my friend. “Don’t worry, you’ll be pro in next several months,” replied her.
“Are you sure? How come!” I said.
“Believe me, you will get there.”
Yeah, i don't know! But I really hope so!