Malaysian Student With 17 A1s In SPM Has A Few Tips For Improving Your English!

Main image via Instagram/dramalinabakri

If you don’t know who Dr Amalina Bakri is, she found national fame when she became the highest SPM scorer in 2004 with 17 A1s –  a record for most number of A1s achieved by a student in the history of Malaysian education at the time.

She was then sponsored by Bank Negara to study medicine in the United Kingdom, graduating as a doctor in July 2013 from the University of Edinburgh.

Recently, she shared a couple of tips with her followers on how to improve speaking and writing in English!

A lot of you asked me about how to become fluent in English. This is my thread (based on my experience as a kid). @thealphafoxtrot feel free to add, you’re the English teacher!

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

1. Practice makes perfect, no matter how good or bad your grammar is, just be confident and talk in English.

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

If people say to you, ‘alah, berlagak nak cakap English’, just ignore those naysayers. I had those comments too when I was at school in Malaysia,

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

mainly because a lot of my friends back then were Chinese and Indians and we would be talking in English in class most of the time at school, and of course you could guess that some people didn’t like that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

2. Ok back in the days, we had MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, MIRC, I used those platforms to communicate with my friends from the UK and the US (like having penpals),

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

I even wrote letters to them! I joined some educational groups online (I couldn’t remember what they were). I started doing all these things when I was 12. You all should feel lucky that there are lots of online resources that you can use nowadays!

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

3. Watch English TV shows and movies, listen to English music and PRACTICE. When you learn something new, say the words/phrases out loud!

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

4. Finally, practice practice practice! I can’t say enough. Surround yourself with people who can speak fluent English so that they can correct you when you make mistakes, but just don’t get annoyed Ok? Hehe good luck! 😊

— Amalina Bakri (@DrAmalinaBakri) February 13, 2018

Definitely sound advice! Thank you, Doctor Amalina!