My Second Taking the IELTS Test

It is a hard journey, and maybe a lot of effort, time, money, and tears. You have been trying anything, and lastly, you are aware that what you need to do is just how to try thinking in English. Stop translating from Bahasa Indonesia into English, because they do not match. 

I want to share my experience taking the IELTS test. For the first IELTS test, I took at IDP Bandung. There were six people there, and all Indonesian ethnic (Javanese, Sundanese, Melayu). My second test was taken at SUN Meruya, West Jakarta. I became a minority here, from 10 people, 9 of them were Chinese. They are young and were born between 2000 and 2007, the oldest was born in 1990. They took IELTS maybe for their Bachelor's study overseas. Their names are modern.

IDP Bandung and SUN Meruya are opposite places. My POV is not from infrastructure facilities, both of them are good, but rather my mental condition. At SUN Meruya, some of the participants were accompanied by their parents. Oh my God, how sweet, their parents supported him/her. Just looking at them, they looked great: they dressed well, had optimistic faces, had mental and economic support, had good education from good schools, and 3.2 million to take the IELTS test are only number from them, easy peasy. 

I felt inferior, I think their first language is English too daily, so they did not have any problem doing the assignments, from Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. To get over 7 is not rocket science. How about me? Nope. When we were waiting in the waiting room, I felt that I was left 15 years from their conditions now. Sure, I felt sad. But the best thing I could do was we were the same.

I was confident doing the Reading session, and fifty-fifty in Listening and Writing. In Speaking, I have been aware that: 

"In conversations and other situations where you need the ability to process information and respond quickly, thinking and translating slow you down. Let alone, the translated sentences may not sound natural in English because the sentence structure is often different in your native language and in English. By thinking in English first, you don’t have to translate in your head, and this strategy can improve fluency." (Suri Do, Medium, 2017). 

Damn! I miss my English First (EF), oh, nope. Generally speaking, "thinking in English" is the best way to improve our fluency. As Suri said: 

"It means all you need is to speak without paying attention to the rules and pronunciations ... Don’t worry about making mistakes. It’s much better to practise English by speaking and making mistakes than not to speaking in English because of the fear of making mistakes."   (Suri Do, Medium, 2017).

From Gabby's article, I have learned too:

"Your brain is so amazing that it will begin to recognize patterns and want to follow them too! ... My English is getting better each day." (Gabby Wallace, Youtube, 2017)

As an ESL (English Second Language) person, the hard thing to improve English is our confidence, not grammar and vocabulary. So, my advice to myself is, that being confident is very crucial, English is not always about what to say, but how to say it. Gabby Wallace said it well too:

"Often, learners who understand English well hesitate to speak up. In contrast, those who speak up, despite making mistakes, tend to learn faster. Therefore, remember, the goal is to communicate, not to be perfect ... concentrate on how you communicate ... try imagining a confident version of yourself ... it’s about ‘faking it till you make it’... Focus on your willingness to learn and grow, rather than on being flawless ... remember that your voice is important. Speaking up is not just about practicing English; it’s about sharing unique perspectives ..." (Gabby Wallace, Medium, 2024, and Youtube, 2017) 

I will try to implement it then. Thank you EF, IELTS, SUN Meruya, and all of the things that have been helping me. You are a rock.