{"id":1930,"date":"2024-07-27T09:43:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T13:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2024-07-27T09:44:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T13:44:28","slug":"how-i-embraced-my-broken-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/how-i-embraced-my-broken-english\/","title":{"rendered":"How I embraced my broken English"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Most kids try to hide things they&#8217;re not good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I decided to try something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My English was really bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t speak well or write good sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My grades were very low, and I had trouble understanding what people said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I asked myself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if being bad at something could actually help me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During college, I loved reading @GQMagazine and was obsessed with Neil French&#8217;s long copy ad work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I started copying the words I saw in the magazines and began to trace Neil French&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Word by word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"769\" height=\"952\" src=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/neil-french-airasia-full.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1931\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/neil-french-airasia-full.jpg 769w, https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/neil-french-airasia-full-242x300.jpg 242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Like learning to play an instrument on a hit song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, it felt weird, like I was a robot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then something amazing happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started to see patterns in the words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My messy English began to make more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I looked closely at how the words were put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I asked myself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How does this word look on the page?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do the sentences fit together?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What makes a paragraph look good?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Slowly, my writing got better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sentences started to sound like music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describing words made pictures in my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Action words made stories come alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing I was bad at became something I was good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My struggle turned into a skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little had I known, at the time, I was doing something called &#8220;copywork.&#8221; It means copying good writing to learn from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duh, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are you not good at?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe it&#8217;s hiding a way for you to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Try looking at it differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Copying isn&#8217;t just copying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s like diving into a pool of good ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You soak them up and learn how to make your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can you see how good writing is built?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s like a house made of words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The big mountain of things you can&#8217;t do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s actually stairs that help you get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every mistake teaches you something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every time you stop to look around, you see something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not being perfect can teach you a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a journey to learn about yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can lead you to be good at something you never expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So be happy about the things you&#8217;re not good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They might help you grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let your struggles show you the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your best teacher is inside you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Will you listen, even if it doesn&#8217;t speak perfectly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"520\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chivasregal-neilfrench.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chivasregal-neilfrench.webp 520w, https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chivasregal-neilfrench-208x300.webp 208w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most kids try to hide things they&#8217;re not good at. But I decided to try something different. My English was really bad. I couldn&#8217;t speak well or write good sentences. My grades were very low, and I had trouble understanding what people said. Here&#8217;s what I asked myself: What if being bad at something could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1934,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}