Overcoming Linguistics Anxiety

The English language is one of the subjects I detest while growing up. Maybe because I had a very harsh teacher who will not hesitate to scold or even punish me with the slightest grammatical error. But how am I supposed to communicate if not in English?

My journey to detesting the English language didn’t stop, I found myself battling with this even during my Eng 101 in my university days. I guess the idea of reading became another issue for me, especially since at this point it is no longer a thing of choice as failure to pass will lead to a carryover.

How can I disappoint my parents? Knowing fully well, all they deprived themselves to give me a sound education. We can relate to how proud our African parents can be while telling their friends, that their daughter is in the university. Without your knowledge, many people will be counting the years for you, and when you are supposed to graduate. Do I have a choice at this point, the answer is No. I had to study so hard to get a pass. But then, how am I to effectively understand and get good grades in other subjects without understanding and making good of all my tenses?  somehow, I managed through all this and graduated from the university. 

On coming to LBS, I really did not know what to expect but certainly, management communication wasn’t one of them. On filling out the form for my courses for the first semester I sighted this same subject I have been running away from. I had to accept my faith in this and put in the work, maybe because I am the one sponsoring this program. Who wants to spend so much without getting the value? Out of fear, I quickly clicked on the library on my E learn and found this book by Lucille Ossai, thrive and thrift as I said in my last post. It was an interesting piece. It encouraged me and boosted my knowledge of how to face my fears. 

Let me take you through my journey in my first communication class. The faculty started with so many questions trying to access our knowledge on communication. In my mind, I was just wondering how I am to cope with this faculty. Immediately, I started disliking the course. After the class, I spoke to my program manager who encouraged me not to give up.

On getting the orientation on choosing clubs of my choice as part of my career journey in LBS, I quickly indicated Toastmasters as I wanted to overcome this fear that comes with understanding and speaking English with correct tenses and diction. It was really helpful as I discovered that I was not the only one on this journey of becoming better at communicating effectively. 

Management communication unconsciously is one of the subjects that I now invest more time in as I want to know more about when to use apostrophes, commas, colons, semicolons, etc. Is there any improvement? Absolutely! just like my financial accounting faculty will respond to any question. 

There is a saying that goes like this “practice makes perfect”. As many of you that are on this journey of communicating effectively, don’t give up. I know someday we will smile and be happy about how good we have become. It is a gradual process, and we will get there someday once we put in the necessary work.