Memoirs of a Saudi Ph.D. student: At a loss for words

THE complexities of the English language never cease to amaze me. When I was applying for my Master’s degree in 2008, I was confident that I would not need any additional English language course prior to starting my Master’s program.
According to my own “biased judgment,” I thought I was proficient enough to easily get enrolled in the degree program. I was confident that I would easily achieve the IELTS score (band 7) in the very first attempt.
I sat for the exam, which was frankly very tough especially the reading part but that did not waver the faith I had in my abilities. To my surprise, I could manage to score 6.6 instead of the required 7. It meant I needed to take a four-week academic English course before the commencement of my degree program. I had mixed feelings of anger and disappointment, as I had been planning to go to the UK just before the start of the session. I so much wanted to spend Ramadan and Eid in the Kingdom but the IELTS score wrecked my plans and I was convinced I did not need any additional course or training.
Come on! I’ve been communicating in the English language like forever (OK, that’s quite not accurate but still), what would those four weeks add to me? Why waste time and money?
Despite all these thoughts that kept popping up in my mind, I knew the four-week course was unavoidable.
After just a few days into the course, I realized my folly. Academic English was quite different from the colloquial English that we are used to. Learning structured academic writing was no less than a blessing for me. They taught us how to write critically and how to compare and contrast in addition to other writing styles, they also showed us the right way to read complex articles and how to extract information, and to be honest, I was nearly traumatized when I first saw an article published in a journal. At first, the only English I noticed was in page numbering and the rest of the paper looked Greek to me, I tried to read a bit but failed. If I recognized a word I was surprised with the Greek word that followed, which made comprehending a complete sentence an uphill task. At that point, I felt trapped.
It was obvious that the British academic system relied mostly on published journal articles and accredited academic books.
It is different from other academic systems wherein you are given a book and asked to study it and then you will be tested based on how much you know the book. Anyway, to cut the long story short, the course was more than beneficial and I advise anyone who is planning to proceed to higher education in UK or other countries to take the academic English course even if their score in IELTS or TOEFL is high enough, he/she will be surprised at the intricacies of the English language.