23 March 2010 – Last night, at about 9.

00 pm I had a conversation with my partner,

Norwahidah Binti Alias in my room at B-1-1 College 17. She came into my room bringing her
hamster with her and we had a talk about our hamster and things regarding the topic. The
conversation started with our simple greetings and we introduced our hamster to each other.
Her hamster’s name is Colat and mine is Ciput. The conversation continued with a
discussion about the maintenance and the feed us feeding our hamsters.

Then, we discuss more on the toys that usually hamsters play with and Wahidah explained
to me about a very useful fact. It was about how hamsters need to exercise in order to keep
themselves healthy, if not they will be paralyzed. Our conversation ended with a conclusion
to put our hamster in one cage and breed them so that we can have their offspring in the
future.

Overall, in the conversation, I felt that my pronunciation was not good enough and my voice
was a little bit slower than my partner’s. My vocabulary also seems to be lacking a lot since I
only used simple and everyday words in my conversation. I should spend more time in
reading English materials such as News Straits Times, Reader Digest or English novels. I
should also find more time watching English movies and revise my vocabulary everyday and
every time I’m free.

I’m also week when it comes to fluency in English. Since I’m learning this language from
primary school until now I still don’t have the courage to speak or talk using English. In my
home town, I was surrounded with this kind of stereotype that when we start to speak
English then everybody will laugh at you. I’m still having a hard time to find myself speaking
English. I was actually practicing English by reading out loud and I found myself quite good
in pronunciation words but when it comes to a conversation unscripted, I was left blank.

In the aspect of language, I’m strongly believed that I can perform it very well but it seems
like my language was not good enough as I expect it to be. I seem to focusing on my
language too much that I come to forget what was I was saying. That’s way in the middle of
the conversation I sometimes lost of words to say. Fortunately, my partner helps me a lot in
the conversation so that the conversation doesn’t look like one-way conversation. For that
I’m really thankful for my understanding partner.

Throughout the conversation, I was too focusing on the hamster and the cage that I noticed
there was lack eye contact between us. I also used a lot of hands movement that I found my
partner seem to be distracted with it. And I sometimes lost in my own world and become so
indulge in playing with the hamsters and need to ask my partner to repeat back what she
said earlier.
I found it difficult to start a conversation even it was in my mother’s language. It is because
I’m not the friendly kind of person. I’m more comfortable if the other side starts the
conversation first, and then will I starting to get along with the conversation. It is not too
difficult to keep the conversation going actually. In the conversation, I can keep up with it and
keep it going for about awhile because I kept asking about the hamsters and my partner also
success in explaining things involving hamsters.

But, when it comes to the end of the conversation, I do not really know how to end it
smoothly. Luckily, we managed to come up with a conclusion where we will put our hamster
in one cage in order to breed them. The conversation did not end with parting because there
were a lot more to do. So we does not end our conversation with actual goodbyes and taking
leaves.

There are so much that I need to find out, if a want my English to be excellent. I should read
English materials at least every day for about an hour. I also should improve my
pronunciation by reading out loud and always ask experienced people and instructor if there
are things that I do not know about English language. Watching and listening to English
program in TV or radio could also improve my ability to converse in English. And lastly, I
should never let my selves influenced by cheap stereotype from the people who do not
understand the importance of English language nowadays. Besides that, I need to always try
to converse using English language more often in college or at home so that I can be more
fluent, ready and fully prepared to start a conversation.

If I were given the chances to rate my conversation, I will rate it 5 out of 10 because there
were so many things that I need to learn in order to carry out a successful conversation does
not matter with my friends or strangers.

Prepared by

(NADIAH SYUHADA)
 CONVERSATION
CRITIQUE

BBI 2420

Student’s name : Nadiah Syuhada Binti Roslan

Matrix number : 155978

Instructor’s name : Miss Azima Binti Aziz