English as Second Language

Studying in Wollongong using English as main language in daily conversation really good for my English. I am using English when speaking, writing, reading and listening. But I think that it is not easy, especially in writing and speaking. Reading is easier than listening, because what I need to do is read, then translate it in my first language, Indonesia, then I know and understand what the text is. But in listening, I need to pay more attention to listen to the speaker. Sometimes the accent and different pronunciation, or they speak too fast, make me do not understand what are they said. While in writing and speaking, it is more difficult. Let’s discuss about speaking first. In speaking, I found that my pronunciation is not so good. And I am also using the wrong tenses. Example, have you ate? I am always using that sentences, but I think that there is something wrong with the grammar. That should be ‘have you eaten?’ but I feel strange to asking someone have u eaten? But may be I can change it to ‘have you had your lunch’. This is better than have you ate. Now, let’s talk about writing. I found that not easy to write something. Even that I have an idea, what I want to write, but after I wrote that, it feels like something wrong. May be because of my ideas are in Indonesia language, and I try to translate it. So the grammar, or the meaning of what I want to share is not clear. I am feel that this is not exactly what I want to write. So, I tried to borrow some Grammar book from library. I hope that with read more about grammar can give me more idea what the correct one is. And I also hope that my teacher can correct me, if there is another good way or sentence to express my idea.