The final essay: No gains without pains (Yongfei Gu)

This is the final essay in my English 2F class and also the final essay in my freshmen year in C.W Post.

Because it is an informal writing, that means I can write anything I want in this essay.
First of all, I want to say thank you to Professor Bai. You are a really nice teacher that’s why I chose your courses from English 1F to English 2F. Though these two courses, I’ve accomplished my basic academic writings and I will try to go much further in my academic years.

The language is the root of writing, it is the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. Usually, we start to learn language since we were born, which is called our native language. The native language is the easiest language for people to learn, because we grew up in that language circumstances. People around us are keeping communication with that kind of language, like parents, and we use the language to obtain knowledge from schools in our own countries. Consequently, which language are you good at that is depended on which language circumstances are you usually in.

As an international student in an English country, we ought to communicate with others use the official language of the country. Though English is just a second language for us, we have to use it in the academic activities and the daily life. We try to alter our language habits, however we still always feel in defect of vocabularies, especially in the academic fields. For instance, we can go to supermarkets and ask things which we need, but we may not describe the definition of some professional words in our major course by using our own words. Therefore, presentations in the classes become the optimum way for practice the language and the courage of giving speeches in front of the public. In the processes of learning English, we make efforts everyday, listening to the lectures, taking notes and doing the assignment. Nevertheless, writing paper is quite a long and painful task for most of international students. We often complain about it and said, “That’s impossible for me to reach such a tremendous number of pages even using my own language. That’s totally such a nightmare. ” Generally, we would take several hours even a whole night to finish a paper, although which is not so perfect or full of mistakes in our professors’ eyes. At least, we’ve tried our best to do it. I still remember the first time I wrote my first essay in the English 1F class. Because of lacking of practices, I used roughly 6 or 8 hours to finish it though it was only 4-5pages. At that time, I had nothing in my mind just an empty blank; and only at that time, I realized that English is not so easy to improve, I met the bottlenecks. Enlarging my vocabularies is the first thing I should do and I then I begin to notice the new words I’ve met everyday. Thus, I finished the first research paper in English 1F. I’ve admitted, that is an unforgettable experience in my life; combining painful and happiness. The process is really suffering, but the result is quite satisfactory in my mind. No matter what kind of grade I’ve got, at least, that is my own product by using my wisdom; that’s the initial thing which I want to emphase. Fortunately, after accomplishing so many papers, 15-page-paper means no big deal and 3 or 4 page essay means nothing. I think that’s the good news for me and always the professors, since I can produce something not only in larger quantities, but also in better qualities.

In addition, that’s not so easy for a nonnative speaker to understand a language as well as a native speaker, because there are so many obstacles. However, I always believe that proverb,” No gains without pains”.