31 things to say for a month - Day 17: Ill-discipline and French

Indeed, I failed to write a piece of blogpost every day and entered into hiatus for the past 1 week. However, I have reasons as to why I failed on my mission. Firstly, I have been really swarmed with work and other commitments so much so that I have been returning home at around 8 or 9 pm every day. As a result, I was too tired to blog. Secondly, I decided that perhaps I should not update it so frequently else my blog might attract unintended attraction. Thirdly, I want to be a responsible online citizen such that I do not make comments that might be irresponsible or uncalled for because I had not thought through the things that I write about. Fourthly, I kind of ran out of things to write so I needed more time to interact with people and reflect on what I would like to talk about else I would most likely have overlapping posts.

Day 17: Why I call myself an ill-disciplined person



J'aime le Francais!

Ever since I was a kid, I was a big fan of this nation by the name of France. I have completely no idea why, maybe it was due to the colours of the flag, the shape of their map, the monuments that I hear about that exist in France, etc. So when I was in the Polytechnic, I decided that some day I must pick up French and of course visit France. The latter was much more easier so I went to Paris a few years ago and also revisited the place. I did not experience as much success when it comes to picking up French. I went for French classes (Beginner and Intermediate) about 7 years ago on a moment of impulse. Like I previously mentioned, I like to do things in the heat of a moment so the decision to sign up for French struck me when I was at Jurong East interchange and felt a sudden surge to start fulfilling the goals that I set. I had been working at Hilton for a few months and learnt to appreciate that knowing a third language is a skill. I was also edged on by the sudden extra cash that I saw in my bank account because I had just gotten my final pay check from my previous job at Hilton and would also be receiving my scholarship allowance soon.

It took me a lot of courage to go for French lessons alone and having to learn a language and not have anyone else to practise with simply make things worse. I diligently attend lessons every Wednesday night from 730 to 930 but despite knowing the words, I faced problems with conversing. After all, French requires the use of the naval cavity to pronounce a lot of words. After 2 rounds of lessons and the fact that I experience very low success rates compared to my classmates, I eventually gave up.

This is not the only thing that I gave up halfway as I grew up. I was having a conversation with a student and a parent when the idea of the lack of discipline popped up. The student wants to try out different things in life and learn as many skills as possible but he never stuck to one and mastered it. We concluded that it was due to a lack of discipline. I could very quickly pinpoint that out because I was no different from him. When I was in Primary School, I envied others who can play the piano and dreamt of being able to do it some day but I never picked up piano. When I was in Secondary School, I was invited to join the Badminton Team but I was not disciplined enough to be able to undergo the arduous training. Then later, I decided that perhaps learning guitar could be easier so I went to sign up for guitar classes. Now I have a guitar in the storeroom and it has collected more dust than one can imagine. I wanted to learn how to play snooker, bowl, table tennis, french etc. but I never master any of these things. The only thing that I managed to pick up as a grown-up is tennis and that was because Linky and Shawny edged me on all the time.

I guess after this piece of reflection, perhaps it is time to dig those old french books of mine and start picking it up again. That shall be my short-term goal or goal for this year? hahaha!