Now, I am a sophomore student in Dokkyo University. I study in the English department, and take the English- literature course. Almost nine years have passed since I started to study English.

What led me to study English is my friend. When I was in elementary school, some of my friends went to an English cram school. One day, one of my friends invited me to the lesson, so I joined in. Then, I found it interesting to study English, and I was attracted to the language. Even now, I clearly remember the exciting feeling when I went to the school. I went to the school until I graduated from elementary school. In the lessons, I learned some basic conversation and English songs.

Entering the junior high school, I was interested in English more and more. Of course my most favorite subject was English, and I enjoyed studying the language. I took notes neatly, and never failed to prepare for the next lesson. Also, I always had my English dictionary beside me, and whenever I found a word I did not know the meaning of, I looked it up in the dictionary. I liked reading, so I read some fairy tales in English. Those experiences improved my reading skills.

When I became a junior student in high school, I had to make a choice which course to take. The courses were divided according to what subject to study mainly. I decided to take the International Course that is famous as a very hard class. In the class, I had a variety of experiences learning English. We gave speeches, news presentations, had an English training camp, and did debating and research papers. The hardest experience for me was the research paper. Students cannot graduate from the school unless the paper passed. We had to write more than five pages, and it took about a year to finish the paper. Also, the most impressive experience was a homestay program in Australia. All of the students in my class went to Australia about a month and stayed in host families. It was a nice opportunity to improve my English. At first, I could not follow their speaking speed, but I got used to it little by little. Furthermore, my speaking also improved. Actually, I did not learn English in the class, but I studied many things in English. We just used English as a tool of communication. There were two native- speaker teachers teaching in the course, and I really enjoyed their class. Although the class was really hard and teachers were very strict, it did not change the fact that English was my most favorite subject. The experiences in the class were great influences on my learning English. I think I could not improve my English without this hard time, and I really appreciate the teachers who taught me.