I truly believe that learning a new language is really a passport to a whole new culture, and I stuck with learning French.

In addition, I learned so much about French culture. I would say that-and take my words with a pinch of salt-this is probably a good time to do homestays, because you know enough simple questions and key sentences to have a basic conversation, but not so many that you are only used to textbook phrases. At that time, I had completed level A2 and was at the start of level B1. at the beginning of level B1) not too early, not too late. However, I must add that these homestays were timely (i.e. It was also how I progressed from only speaking a smattering of memorised phrases to being fluent in the language. This has been one of the most helpful experiences, as I got used to local colloquialisms and commonly used phrases. When I did homestays in the homes of my French friends, I had the luxury of speaking to their families in French, for hours. Indeed, it was a constant, in fact daily, reminder that I needed to put in more effort so as to be one step closer to achieving the DALF C2 accreditation.

Having an end in mind was effective in generating some form of good pressure. Because of their kindness and my growing passion for the language, I told myself that I would work hard and sit for the highest level of French language proficiency test ( le DiplГґme approfondi de langue franГ§aise C2) by 2015.

Some of them even invited me to their homes in Paris, Brest, and other beautiful French cities. Fortunately, things became better when I arrived in London in September 2013 and made several French-speaking friends, who were really encouraging and helpful. I shall not mince words-it was tough, especially when most of my friends at the time did not speak it. After a while, I just fell in love with this Romance language. Hence, I started attending classes at the Alliance FranГ§aise in Singapore. At that time, I knew that I was headed to LSE and thought that French might be useful in Western Europe. The idea of learning a foreign language first came to me in 2012, during my stint in military service. I have never been formally trained in using the more technical terms in Mandarin and translation, and I really enjoy this more technical component of my Mandarin language learning. For this reason, and also because of the fact that I want to maintain my Mandarin proficiency, I am attending Advanced Business Chinese classes at the Confucius Institute for Business London (CIBL) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Pursuing an Economics with Economic History degree has made me wonder about the use of Mandarin in settings where economic jargon is required. Having studied in London for more than two years has also made me more adaptable to different varieties of English, as Singapore Standard English is occasionally different from Standard British English: for instance, we Singaporeans use вЂflip-flopsвЂ™ and вЂslippersвЂ™ interchangeably whereas in the UK, вЂslippersвЂ™ are the thick footwear worn during winter. Here, I must give credit to my alma mater, Bukit Panjang Government High School, which had excellent English and Mandarin teachers, who nurtured me to achieve proficiency in both languages. While I cannot speak for all Singaporeans, this environment has certainly helped me make useful associations between languages. When I was in high school, a typical day involved being taught in English in all subjects other than Mandarin-Chinese class and, after school, speaking Mandarin to my family, except my paternal grandmother, with whom I spoke Teochew (a Southern Chinese language variety). I am not sure if being exposed to a bilingual environment helps with oneвЂ™s cognitive abilities, but I have to say that learning English as my first language and Mandarin as my second language has certainly sown the seeds of passion for language acquisition. In Singapore, it is also possible to be formally taught a third language, for example, French or Spanish. As an ethnic Chinese, I learned Mandarin. OneвЂ™s assigned second language depends on oneвЂ™s ethnicity. I must first of all say that I am truly blessed to have been born in Singapore, where local newspapers are published in our four official languages-English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil-and where learning a second language in school is mandatory.

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