"My Chinese name is Yuet Lai but everyone calls me Alice. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I feel very lucky because I have a good job in a boutique in Central Hong Kong. I’m a sales assistant and have done this job for nearly 6 years, since I finished high school.

I use spoken English a lot – we have many customers from North America, Europe and Australia – but I still struggle to use English in the right way. I sound horrible but the customers seem to understand me. I know my grammar is often incorrect and my pronunciation is rough. In fact, my boss, who is from Sweden, told me that if I want to further my career, I have to improve my general level of English, as well as my pronunciation, and writing. But it’s not easy!  

When it comes to talking about clothes or design or fabric, I can get by very easily. I can also chit-chat with the customers about the weather or basic topics related to shopping. But anything beyond this is really hard for me. Talking about music, for example, or art or politics is something that I struggle with. Last month, we hosted a big cocktail party during fashion week and I felt nervous the whole time, so scared that someone would ask me a question that I didn’t know how to answer because of my poor English.

I was a terrible student in school and now I regret this. In my elementary and high-school years, I slept through most of my English classes! I was much more interested in hanging out with my friends and having fun. I was a typical kid, I guess. I could just get by speaking, but I never really learned grammar. I had a few foreign friends, but I only saw them in a big group and didn't really get much chance to practice with them.

When I started working in this boutique, I realized how important English was! Last year, my boss asked me to go to night school and learn English grammar and writing. The problem was that the level of the class was really low and my speaking ability was much higher. I knew the only way to improve was to go back to the basics and I'm pleased to say I finished the course. And now I'm taking an intermediate business English course. The class is really boring but I have to do this if I want to become a manager one day. My goal, then, is to take and hopefully pass the linguaskill examination in about six months' time. If I do pass, my manager said he'll promote me to supervisor which means I'll also have to use written English for emails. I guess I study around two hours every night after work. It's hard when you're feeling really tired, but I know it's the only way I'll succeed and fulfil my dreams."