Fire Garden: The First Blog That I Created in 2006

I started this blog back in 2006. When I looked back, my last post was in 2014.

Why did I create this blog in the first place?

2016 was the final year of my engineering degree. And after 5 years studying, I became worried that I have a bad command in English. I can't speak well, my grammar was broken, and I don't have a medium for me to express my thoughts. During my foundation studies in MMU, I got C for all 3 English subjects. And if I can't communicate in English, I might be losing the opportunity to have a good career.

Looking back at my 2006 post, that was the year that I actively updated my blog. I just don't know the theme of the blog, but I just wrote it because I wanted to improve my English. I maintain it as a public blog so that when I was to write something, I keep myself conscious that I need to write the best that I can because the world will be reading it. And I made the decision to only write in English to support my primary objectives. Yes, until today, I believe it was written in English and it has served that purpose.

My English now is much better as compared to myself 12 years ago. Not even near perfect, but  I believe it is much better. And I credited to so many events that happened in my life. But to me, writing is one of the ways for me to articulate my idea, get clarity of my thoughts and a way to express myself. Nowadays, I use Facebook as my main medium of writing (to the public) and I use Malay, as many people would appreciate my posting if I write in Malay as compared to English.

Today I have many ways of practicing my English. I have many friends internationally that forced me to speak 100% English without a mixture of Malay at all. I have platforms for me to speak, been in so many associations, Toastmasters, also networking with other races. And I am in training business, I just couldn't believe myself that I can deliver a keynote in English and conduct a 2-day programme in English.

I am not sure if I will still be active on this blog, as I have created another blog of www.johanirwan.com which also have not been updated for quite sometimes. But this blog I believe is for me to write about my thoughts without too much intelligent aspect of it or any professional point of view. It is just about me, my life and the thoughts that came to my mind.

Hopefully, even after I passed away, someone will read this blog and look back at my past. They will know that I am terrible at writing with hundred of grammatical error, yet, I am able to speak on an international stage.