Name: Kimie Kubota

Year: 1997

 

     I hated English for two years because I did not like and could not understand English grammar at all. When I entered JHS that put stress on English education, I started to study English. At first I was looking forward to studying English, but the English class was so boring and I hated the English teacher. I slept in all the classes. Two years passed, I did not really study English.

     Then my mother hired a tutor for me because I was bad at not only English but all subjects. I met a university student who majored in English literature and she taught me English very kindly. When we started to study English together, I did not even understand the difference between "there is" and "there are". She asked easy questions and cheered me up anytime about anything I was in trouble with. My English skill of grammar, reading and composition got better and I got to be interested in other subjects more and more.

     She recommended to me an English conversation school. I went there for three years. And I got conversation skills because I met good teachers. In the school, a Japanese teacher taught me at first. She was funny and let me say the same phrases that I forgot many times.

     My next teacher spoke English fluently. He told me many experiences in Canada and listened to me though I spoke English so slowly. One day he recommended me a tour. I went to California in the United States and stayed with an American family for a month.

     I stayed in south of Los Angels for a month. I went to school in the morning and studied American culture. In the afternoon, I went on field trips. Sometimes I went to Macdonalds, a supermarket of amusement parks. I went to Disney Land and Universal Studios! I made many friends with people from several countries, France, Mexico, China and also America. I stayed with an American family. There was a mother and a baby. Her husband was in the navy and he stayed in Cuba so I could not see him. The host mother was 19 years old and senior to me by only two years! We talked about a lot of things every day and she taught me a little Spanish that she learned in HS. My English improved every day thanks to her. That is my great experience. 

     I met a new teacher after coming back to Japan. He was Canadian. He was very kind to me but I could not like him and wanted to concentrate on studying for the entrance examination for university. So I quit the English conversation school. I had no chance to speak English from then. I had a conversation class in HS once a week but in fact none of my classmates used English during the classes. I wanted to get a chance to speak English so I studied hard to enter a university.

     I studied hard and entered Nanzan university. I was surprised at classmates because they spoke English more fluently than I imagined. I could only keep up with LL and OC classes. Everyday I have to write Action Log, and the homework was one of my hard works. And I was surprised at the number of students who lived abroad for a long time. I did not want to speak with them in English. However I attended classes as much as I could. I made friends with classmates and OC class got to be one of the classes I liked.

     After the first summer vacation in Nanzan, I came back to Nagoya from Sapporo. I was surprised at a woman who lived next to my room in the apartment. I live in a kind of dormitory. She is from America. At first I could not speak to her but after three weeks I made friends with her. She was born in Taiwan and had lived in America since she was sixteen years old. She can speak English, Chinese, and Taiwanese and now she studies Japanese in Nanzan. We talked in English and Japanese using Chinese character. I can be her Japanese teacher and get chances to speak English outside the OC class. Sometimes she taught me Chinese. She is a good friend of mine and one of my role models.