Correcting/editing essays all week long, that's what I have been doing this week. Oh, and looking at that abomination named Project Work.

First is credited to my sister and her friends. That made 4. The reason: O Levels English examination is on next Monday.

Second is credited to a writing assignment - to argue and validate the choice of candidates for survival after a nuclear winter in one paragraph, to be done in a pair. Well, I had to start it off. When the writing came back, I had to do severe editing and axed off 170+ words to make the word count.

Third is credited to my brother who needed to complete his Insights and Reflections component. Other than his group's Written Report, I have vetted countless times on the rest.

Now, I am thumbing through a grammar handbook to grill the said sister in English grammar.

I don't get it at all.

I got along fine learning English without any help, growing up in a Chinese background. Television programs were usually the ones in the Chinese channels. Newspapers that were bought were Chinese.

This is a very interesting case study.

If I had any aptitude for languages, I would probably be taking JLPT 2 by now instead of learning it in school.

I remembered in upper Secondary, my Higher Chinese grades lost only to a China national (seriously, it's a shame on her if I won. ) in class ( my class was considered the worst one in the cohort, because the majority of the classmates weren't that interested in the academic). Hell, I got 380+ for that inaugural HSK Chinese Proficiency Test without studying. I think I was the second or third highest in the batch who took it.

Then I threw a nice bomb to my teachers for O Levels: B3 for Chinese and A2 for both English and Higher Chinese. My form teacher was either pretty damned shocked or grinning in glee at the disbelief of the HOD. In my school, getting a B3 in Chinese for Higher Chinese students meant you had to drop the subject and take Chinese. My teacher and I thought I wrote out of point for the composition component ( it happened once in a school exam; I flunked the composition, got high A for Paper 2 and scored a B3 for total ). So he appealed for me to continue Higher Chinese.

Ability is not an excuse for convenience. I don't ask people who are good at certain things to help because I want to try it out first and figure out where's the problem.

I don't get compensated for doing things. I do them at the expense of my own sacrifice which goes pretty much damned unnoticed and unappreciated.

Go away.