Name: Ann Onymous        

 Year: 1996                          

 

                                                                                                 

     In class, I was surprised at the richness in contents, the amount of homework, and that we were required to attend classes. Teachers conduct the classes quite differently from high school.  Especially, teachers who teaches liberal arts don't arrange what they teach so I had to make my notebook by myself.  That is, I had to concentrate on the lecture so much. It was so hard for me.  Most of the week, I had four classes a day and after them I had homework of E-mail or telephone someone.  And of course, I wanted to join some sports club but time didn't allow me to do so. I got stress so much and thought I couldn't take a rest.     Though the oral communication class is fairly good, for I could improve my skill in English, other classes such as writing, workshop, and reading were not so effective in improving my skills though they place great importance on attendance.  Sometimes I felt attending classes is a waste of time. Moreover, no matter whether I'm in a bad condition or not, only one absence would lower my grade.

     I had conversation classes in junior high and high school held by native speakers.  But we spoke a lot of Japanese and didn't practice speaking.  I wish I had had this class in junior high and high school!!  Everybody could have been a good speaker of English.  It should have been a most effective and useful way of studying English.  And I wish I had an "Action Log" in junior high And high school!  I had a lot of things to say to the teachers.

     In high school, teachers do a lot for entrance exams and ignored the lower students even when they asked for help.  We had to memorize a great deal in a short time so I couldn't get good scores in the tests.  No matter how much I wanted to know more about something, most of them said, “it's useless to know more. You have only to remember. If you care such things, you won't improve your marks!”  So, now in university, I'm happy that most of the teachers don't reject my questions nor requests nor opinions.  Some are still hard headed, though.  But teachers in university have great knowledge that I can rely on. What is more, teachers look after us a lot!  I think it's great.  And especially teachers in my department are trying to make classes enjoyable.

        To change the subject, when I came to this class for the first time, I was so surprised at my classmates speaking in English so fast with a lot of difficult words.  Until I came to university, I had met only a few students who spoke English so fluently.  Classmates shocked me so much that I couldn't help but make efforts not to get behind them.  But in fact, I also gave some of them shocks. I think it’s good that we can learn something by encouraging each other.

     Finally, I'd like to improve my reading skill and writing skill.  I read very slowly and don't understand difficult phrases.  And I'm terribly bad at writing essays. My writings doesn't make sense sometimes and it’s not consistent.

     Though I wrote down a lot of complaints, I'm satisfied with the classes.