I am senior in Dokkyo University. Now I am majoring international relations in my seminar and I will graduate from school this year. My English learning history started from junior high school. Before then, I wasn’t interested in English, but one English class in JHS changed my mind.

At first, I had some fear of English in JHS because it was unfamiliar to me. It was needless in my daily life. At the beginning of the class, I just learned without any interest. But I gradually felt it very interesting. English class was full of interesting games like BINGO, Simon Says and more. Games were one of the ways of introduction to English. Gradually, I began to have interest in English movies and music. I was joyful to find English words that I learned from music or movies. For example, I tried to compare music lyrics in Japanese and watch foreign movies. So, English class in JHS was not only learning English but also to know how interesting to learn was. In the other words, learning English gave me a pleasure.

In high school, I also had much motivation for English learning. I wanted to know more about that and try hard to learn it. But, foreign language class tended to bore me because I had to memorize a lot of grammar and idioms for entrance exams to university. In HS, I had some classes with ALT. It was first time to learn English conversation with foreigners. But I could not take this class when I was junior and senior, because I wanted to enter a university and in HS conversation classes were devoted to studying for entrance exams. English learning in HS was boring for me because it was just understanding and memorizing the textbook.

At that time, I liked to know about foreign worlds. Like English, I have interested in foreign countries like culture that I didn’t know. So, I went on a home stay visit to Australia for 10 days. It gave me a chance to understand foreign cultures and have communication with foreigners in English. But I couldn’t say well what I wanted to say. So, I felt I needed more communication skills. So I studied hard to enter University to study international relationship and English. I was expecting university to improve my English communication skills.

The first year in university, I was disappointed in classes because it was like HS again. Of course, I didn’t feel all classes were boring. But almost all classes were very passive, so I couldn’t feel my English skills improving.

The study itself gave me expert knowledge. So, I can read books for my major written in English and I am getting used to writing some reports in English. But I want more improvement in the area of communication. I am still shy to speak English with native English speakers. I hope I can have a chance to speak English in some classes positively. And I want to learn expert knowledge with English. Now I joined in English teaching volunteer work with ALT in neighbor elementary school. Students are so exiting and active to learn English with pleasure. From them, I remember my days of JHS when I was interested in learning English like mad. Recently, I lose my eagerness for learning. But I realize that being passive doesn’t give me any knowledge and happiness of learning and I have to be more active.

Now, I am senior and I will graduate from university this year. I decided to study abroad after graduation. I want to study Education or International Relations by using my English in school. In order to do this, I read books and take exams, like TOEFL. Whatever my future work is, I want to work using English and talking to many foreigners.

The advice to the next year’s students is don’t be afraid of mistakes and be active to learning. And I hope they can take many interesting class that they have a chance to speak English freely without being shy in my university.