Do you know everyone is thinking in a different way? Although we are speaking in the same language, we understand things in a different way.

It is hard to explain so I will provide an example. Ask three random people what a pencil is. The first person may answer “a tool to help us write.” The second person may say “a thing I need to bring to school every day.” The third person may reply “a substance made of graphite and wood”. As you see, three people may have three different answers. I figured out that everyone is different because of a story that happened to me, and I am going to share it.

When I first became a secondary student, I was not good at English and unfortunately all subjects were taught in English. Therefore, I had a habit of previewing before class. I read all the textbooks before the teacher taught me, so that I could write down the Chinese meaning next to the words which I didn’t know. But this habit has drawbacks too and it leads me to some bad consequences.

The bad thing was failing my Mathematics unit test. After my teacher finished teaching each unit, students needed to conduct a unit test to find out if we really understood that unit. I studied that unit for one hour only because I had learned it in primary school.

In the beginning of the test, it was easy. But when it came to applied problems, I didn’t even know what it was talking about. The words on the paper move like snakes so I could not understand it. I tried to cheat by looking at my neighbor but his handwriting was so bad. Finally, I failed the test not because of maths, but because of English. That was a tragic result!

Afterward, I went back home and gave up learning Mathematics. So I opened my computer to find something to help me relax, and I found a funny video. It was about how English is used differently in different places. For example : “colour” in America is “color”. After watching that video, I knew that we need to think in different ways when learning different subjects. Mathematics wasn’t a language so I didn’t need to care about what it means, I only needed to care about the numbers. So I will change the thinking “mode” when I am having Mathematics class.

After I know how to “change mode”, I perform better in English and also Mathematics. Everyone is different. I deal with English by “changing mode”. How do you deal with subjects you aren’t good at?