I have been learning English for 10 years since I was a JHS student. In the JHS, I mainly studied, what is called, “Examination English”. I focused on grammar and idioms. However, I had a chance to talk to ALT (Assistant English Teacher who is a native English speaker) once or twice a week and practiced speaking and listening. I couldn’t speak well, but the conversation with her made me feel that I was learning real English. I was very excited not only by the conversation in English but also by new ideas from her.

Though I had to continue studying “Examination English” even in high school, I myself got interested in foreign languages and cultures. When I was in the 3^rd year of the high school, I already decided to go abroad to study English after graduation, so I went to the conversation school, NOVA, for preparation.

I spent about 10 months in Toronto, Canada, and I could experience as much as I’d done for all of my life just in 10 months. Those experiences included many negative ones that educated me afterward. I’d like to introduce one of them. It was during a home stay when I had a hard time. I stayed in an aged couple’s house with the other student, Monica, from Brazil. Monica was really talkative and enjoyed the conversation with our host family. She didn’t care about grammar mistakes and put emphasis on content, while I was so afraid of making mistakes that I kept silent. I now find that it’s more important to enjoy myself speaking English and show that I’m eager to learn it.

I also had a positive memory of learning English. Whenever I got in trouble in Canada, a counselor helped me in many ways. She was easy to talk to because not only of her characteristic but also of her attitude toward me. She always made the conversation clear to her and myself by saying ‘you mean…’ or ‘you’d like to say …right?’ not just ignore what I said. Those conversations eased my tension and let me speak English more positively. I think I could learn many phrases and vocabulary through them without knowing I did. Now I know that these were summarizing and shadowing, so those methods are really helpful.

After entering the university, I was surprised at my classmates. Their enthusiasm for learning English impressed me because they are hungry for getting new ideas or ways to learn it. Simultaneously, they enjoy doing it. I found them great teachers for me. Through the campus life with them, my plans and goals for learning English has been getting clearer little by little.

One of my plans is to experience foreign cultural things as many as possible whether it may be positive one or not. For example, I would like to see many movies or listen to music from abroad, so that I can learn many ways of thinking. I believe that these materials will lead me to improve my English skills. I would also like to try to talk inside and outside of the class if I have opportunities. Getting used to it, I may be able to talk smoothly without hesitation and understand others easily. Moreover, my goals now are to have a job using English as a part of skills. I hope, especially, I can get into the movie industry. Each movie contains its cultural back ground, and it is told using a native language. I would like to try to understand what movies really mean by learning each culture’s point of view. That is why acquiring languages is essential for me. In addition, I think that I can broaden my horizons by talking (meeting) with people in English (or other languages) from all over the world.

My next 3 years, therefore, will be quite challenging to have my dream come true, but it’s also exciting to imagine how my life is going to be by putting efforts on learning English.

As I wrote above, my advice for next year’s 1^st-year student is to be positive to learn English. If you feel you make little progress, start with what you are interested in. In my case it was movies. Also, imitate someone’s English you admire, or talk to yourself about what you think out loud in English. Listening to yourself speaking in English may enable you to become confident.

My language learning will continue as long as I try. I’m really happy that I have gotten interested in languages and cultures because this gives me a lot of opportunities to broaden my world and deepen my ideas.