- Name: Haruya Motoki
- Year: 1997
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My first experience with English happened rather luckily.
When I was in the sixth grade, my father's company decided to send my family
to America. I was very excited to go to America, but I was also sad to be
separated from my elementary school friends. I flew to America with great
excitement and also loneliness. However, the experience in America affected my
life very much.
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As we arrived at the airport in Atlanta, I was really
shocked to see all those huge Americans walking down the concourse. Also the
people had different skin color and hair colors. All I heard was people
speaking a very strange language. Also, I clearly remember the taste of a huge
pizza that I ate in the airport. I felt the hugeness of America at that
moment.
- Then we flew to the city of
Charlotte, where I was to live. When we finally arrived home, I was very tired
from "all-new things". I slept with excitement which was about to come. I
spent time with Japanese who live in Charlotte for the first week.
- On the first day of the next
week, it was my first school day. I entered Elisabeth Elementary School in the
six grade. After meeting the principal, I was guided to my class. I entered
the classroom and there were about thirty classmates all watching me. I didn't
know any English, even the alphabet, so I didn't know what to say. But my
teacher spoke to me some unknown word and I thought that she may want me to
greet them. So I spoke my first English word 'HELLO'. As I said hello, all the
classmates responded to me with a loud voice. I was impressed with the
friendliness of American people.
- After introducing myself, I
was told to sit beside a boy named Zach. He was blue eyed and had blond hair.
Zach and I became friend suddenly. I couldn't speak or understand English, but
we could communicate with 'feeling'. During the lunch break, Zach told me to
join the basketball game. I knew how to play basketball, so I didn't have any
trouble playing. Playing sport is very good and also an easy way to
communicate with people in a different language. I became friends with most of
the classmates after playing the basketball game. However, I couldn't
understand any classes except for math. So I had one hour ESL(English as
Second Language) class per day. ESL class is the class which all the foreign
students learn basic English. There were about five students in ESL. One was
from Germany and others were from China and other Asian countries. I became
good friends with them, too. I learned from the alphabet in ESL.
- My school life went well,
and I began to be able to understand English when almost one year past. I was
in the seventh grade, which is in the JHS, I had joined the basketball club
and I was having a fun school life. I learned to communicate in everyday life,
but I also learned vocabulary and grammar at home. At one period of time I was
learning 'ten words a day. I think it really helped me to keep up my English
skill. I also had a home-teacher when I was in junior high. The teacher was an
American and I learned communication, pronunciation, and grammar.
- When two years past, I
didn't have any trouble communicating in English. I couldn't understand every
single meaning, but I could catch the nuance and I could understand what they
were saying. However, I had a slump after two and half years. My English was
not showing a great progress. I had no idea why it was happening. I had
worried for a while, but I decided to continue my study. Surprisingly, after a
few month, I felt my English progressing greatly. I thought if you work hard
even in slump, you will gain what you are working for. It is important that
you don't stop trying.
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I
think I'm a lucky guy that I could have this great experience in the early
life. I should keep this valuable experience and try hard to gain more
English.
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