Pre-IELTS Experience

So here I am at the IELTS Test Centre at UQ. I'm taking an English proficiency test so that I can apply for Permanent Residency (PR) in Australia.

I expected a crowd, but I didn't expect such a large crowd! Am in a snaking queue just to get my picture taken and my fingerprints scanned. As you can imagine, it is quite the cultural scene here at the moment! I see quite a few people with study notes, intensely reading up their material before the test commences.  I am also overhearing conversations between people sharing their experience with the test because this is their nth time taking the test.

At this point in time (and many other points in time in my life), I feel very blessed to be a Singaporean indeed. Many may not know that English is our official language. Our school teach in English, all our documents as well as road signs are also in English or include English versions. Our National language however, is Malay and this is because they are the native people of Singapore.  We are a multicultural society and are made up of predominantly 4 races- Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian (our colonial roots), so you will find that all our official government documents will have all 4 languages on them. In school, we also take second language classes, our mother tongue (i.e. if you are Chinese, you learn Mandarin, if you are Indian, you learn Tamil or Hindi.

I come from a family that pretty much speaks English only (and some dialect) so I don't have a problem with the Language but having said that, I am heaps better at writing than I am at speaking. It's probably because I love speaking "Singlish", which is Singapore's version of English. For the uninitiated, it's like English that we've adapted to our own, and that is peppered with colloquial terms and dialect phrases. It's pretty much like a whole new language on its own.

Anyway it's my turn to have my picture taken now, update later! Wish me luck!