"Your English is Perfect"

A fellow classmate told me that my English is 'perfect'! Well I've never expected such a compliment because I have always thought there is lots of room for improvement in the fluency of my spoken English. She told me that after I asked a question during the talk by the IMF rep and she is the second person, after Orla, to tell me that.

I think I can rationalise it as the "Sarah Palin expectation -phenomenon". After she had her vice-presidential debate with Biden, it was apparently quite evident that she had lost to Biden when it comes to the degree of grasp on national issues. However, some have said that she had scored a victory in her own right because public expectation was so low in the first place that it was quite easy to cross the threshold of expectation. I have a nagging feeling that this was the effect in my case. As I am a Chinese from a remote island called Singapore, perhaps most people would not expect me to speak relatively good English. And perhaps because I speak relatively good English, I have crossed the threshold of expectation and therefore considered to speak well! This is not necessarily a bad thing; at least I've managed to get compliments for my spoken English, well done! I have to continue to polish up my spoken English and this is my new resolution! Thanks to the fellow classmate who let me know what she thinks about my English, it was a considerable encouragement!

Today we went to the well known institutions: IMF and World Bank. The IMF talk by the legal counsel (he is from Canada) was quite dry but not bad for knowing what the legal faculty of the IMF thinks and their roles in the Fund. Then we had lunch at Corner bakery. The meal, which serves quite a small portion according to American standards, was US$8 ie abt S$12! It was just a sandwich and a bowl of soup. Woo~

Then we had a talk at one of the organs of the WB, the centre for settlement of Investment Disputes. Its principal function is to oversee the settlement of disputes between an investor and a state. The speaker is from Chile and it was not bad. The last speaker was Serge from the Inspection Panel of the World Bank The IP is supposed to be an independent fact finding body which looks into the complainants by people/state harmed by World Bank Projects. Serge is a nice, pleasant guy with a very gentlemanly disposition. I liked his talk, although I was feeling sleepy. I looked at the clock at one point in time and realised that it was 2am SG time. I guess my biological clock has not really attuned itself to N Amerian time zone.

Anw, going for a dinner with Prof Carmody in 15min time. But I feel tired now! My roommate has gone down to the lobby to use the internet I guess. So I'm alone in the room now. I'll now take this last 15 min to rest.