When I first arrived in Brighton, my parents took me around and we went to the Brighton beach. The Brighton beach was not the regular beach with golden sand beneath your feet. Instead, it was rocks! Nevertheless, I still fell in love with the beach as it calms and alleviates my mood and soul. My first impression of Brighton was a fun, lively and entertaining place to live in with peace and harmony surrounding the environment, not to mention the beautiful sceneries!

   I want to study Business Management, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship at City, University of London. This is because I am intrigued and fascinated by the use of modern technology such as the internet for socialising and online businesses. It is quite fascinating to observe how technology improves and transforms people's lives on a daily basis. It also transformed the platforms for businesses as well. After my degree, I would like to work in a digital based company and join forces with my colleagues to help innovate and enhance the lives of people with the aid of digital and technological advancements. I might also propose a digital start-up for my own company but that might not be in the near future.

 Overall, I like living in Brighton and have slowly adapted myself to the culture and environment here. I will continue to improve myself in every aspect in general so that I will not disappoint myself and my family.

The workload between studying in the UK and in Malaysia is quite similar as well. Teachers frequently give us assignments or deadlines which I am able to cope but find it very challenging to consistently produce the best piece of work to the best of my ability. Therefore, I always keep myself on top of my work so that I would not miss any homework deadlines or assessments. Another point worth mentioning is that the weightage of tests and examinations in the foundation program are more spread out to different coursework and assessments which will require you to focus more on the task at hand. In Malaysia during my high school period, our exams are carried out twice a year and all of the weightage goes to the exams. Living in a globalized world thanks to digital technology and advancements, making friends are much easier compared to the olden days. I can adapt and accept different cultures and traditions more easily. Although I connect more easily with my friends in Malaysia due to the same thinking and opinion about what we do in our daily life, I am keen to learn about the different lifestyles of people around the world, and Bellerbys Brighton has given me the opportunity to do so.

The class size in my current class is 10 which is considered a reasonable class size, with 7 girls and 3 boys. In my class in high school, we have 32-40 students. There are 30 girls and 2 boys in my last class which was surprisingly fun and enjoyable.

My parents and family have high expectations on me academically wise and in overall life. Nonetheless, they never stress me to do the best in class or achieve the highest marks, they just require me to be my best in the exams and important task. My father and mother put more importance on my attitude of learning and personality as they believe that the attitude of learning is more essential than achieving good grades. They often stress that with good learning attitude you can go far in life. As for me, my expectation for myself has increased by a lot since I came to the UK. As a consequence, I need to work harder in order to meet my own expectations. My dad always advices me and my sister with a Chinese proverb, that is 同台吃饭，各自修行, meaning that although we eat at the same table, we each have different paths and destinies to go to. So, in spite of getting support from my family emotionally, physically and financially now, my destiny and path that I walk into will be my own decision and every action in every second and minute that I take will lead me to the future that I carve myself into. I will try to manage and balance my life better so that every second and minute does not go to waste.

Although this is my first time studying business related subjects, I found the subjects to be quite interesting and relatable to everyday life. I was fairly intrigued by how the price mechanism works in economics and how a business can work successfully despite the constantly evolving world. As my fascination for studying these subjects grew, I would like to know more about how entrepreneurship and marketing skills are cultivated in a person. I would also like to know more about how decisions are being made in a large ltd or PLC companies.

The teachers in Bellerbys use different types of teaching methods to teach the students. They often incorporate the discussion method into their teaching to make the class more lively and enjoyable. It did work out well. My FES 2 teacher Ms Bright always encourage us to generate ideas and opinions in group discussions which really helped me to improve my spoken English and cognitive thinking skills.

Overall, I have a pleasant experience studying in Bellerbys.

There are definitely dissimilarities between academic and general English. One of the main differences is that academic English usually comprise of specific or target language that serve a purpose to give the readers a clear understanding of the written or spoken passage. As for general language, it is more of a casual, informal or creative style of writing. I personally prefer writing in general English style because I can use more floral language to express my feelings and describe certain objects or environment in detail. I need to know more about academic language used to write thesis statements and synthesis. Furthermore, I would like to study more about spoken academic English and how it is effectively used in our daily lives.

I am taught by my teacher Mr Giron in FES1 and Ms Bright in FES2. Both of the teachers are very knowledgeable in the English field. They always stress upon the idea of target language and purpose language which I found very useful to use, particularly in business.

 I really enjoyed making a blog about myself and writing journals. This is because it allows me to have a way of expressing my feelings and ideas when the other subjects are always in an objective point of view. I understood more about Microsoft Excel and how to use the functions now. Back then in my high school, there were no CIT courses in our modules, so I found it harder than my friends to learn Excel when I came here. Well, the last time I learnt Excel was in primary school! Although in the end I was still quite slow with Excel, I seem to get the gist of it and it was an enjoyable experience.

I need to know more about how to easily memorise shortcuts to keys so the efficiency can be maximized when working on spreadsheets or documents. Ms Witherby teaches CIT in my class for this term. She usually demonstrates on how to use the functions of Excel or Word to us for producing a spreadsheet or word document before we start grinding the work down. Her teaching is clear and understandable which is very helpful to me and my classmates.

The subjects that I am currently studying are Business Studies 1, Introduction to Accounting, and Foundation English Skills 2. Business Studies 1 and Foundation English Skills 2 are closely interlinked and have many areas of overlap. The English skills I acquired in Foundation English Skills 2 proved much useful when studying Business due to the academic language required in written work. Accounting on the contrary, requires a vastly different skillset from the other two with much numeracy coming into play, honing my logical bases. This eclectic mix of subjects allowed me to have a balanced curriculum that will remain applicable in the near future. On top of that, I also spent a substantial amount of time preparing for my IELTS in the first half of the term. I found much of the learning enjoyable, along with the skills garnered being very applicable. 

From Foundation English Skills 2, I learnt how to better articulate and pen down my ideas and opinions. I got the chance to put these skills into action while writing my various essays and assignments, along with the presentation I made on art, literature and media, and its impacts on society allows me to encrypt the knowledge about the recent happenings of the global community. I also researched in depth about the effects of them on human behaviour, the things we do and how it affects the perception of the way we think. It is quite an interesting topic to learn about and thus I have gained much insight about the topic.

Meanwhile, from Business Studies, I gleamed the key qualities needed of an entrepreneur, learning how to write a business plan, PESTLE analysis and about business ethics. Last but not least, I learnt about corporate social responsibility, its impacts and why is this quintessential to a healthy market.

Finally, in Accounting, I have acquired the basic skillsets needed in this study such as knowing how to do ledgers, T-accounts, trial balances, income statements, as well as cash budgets. I also had my first few encounters with various accounting concepts and the needed equations. As I progressed further in my studies, my perception of business and its goings took a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. I learnt how importance and gravity of business planning, and how the sheer emphasis on analysing risk and the plan in deterring them to, significantly preserving a business’ viability. I used to favour economics much more than business studies. However, much has changed from then and I now see the latter’s merits and quirks. Allowing me to enjoy and appreciate the study of Business as a whole much more.

On to the non-academic part of my reflection, I thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of my classmates this term. This term, I have tangibly seen how my relationship with them has only gotten stronger, day by day. I deeply appreciate the great joy they bring with their joviality and humour. I strongly desire to continue getting closer to them, through the camaraderie of school life and whatever it brings. I also very much appreciate my teachers for their care and concern extending beyond academic affairs coupled with their much useful and impactful helpfulness.