- One
year in America
-
-
This
is a story about when I was in JHS and HS. I started to study English from
JHS, and now I am a sophomore in University, so it has been seven years
and a half since I began studying English.
- At
first I liked English, because it was so easy and fun, but my second
year in JHS, I was totally stuck. My English teacher was not good at
teaching it, and after a midterm test, when we were correcting the
mistakes that we made, she said “There are just five people in this
class who got right answers for these questions. Raise your hands”,
and those people seemed so proud, and raised their hands. I blamed
myself wondering why I got wrong answers for these stupid easy
questions! I got so frustrated, and I even got jealous. But fortunately,
they gave me motivation. That’s when I decided to study more and
harder, to get high scores like them. When I went to cram school, I did
a lot more work than everybody else. All I did was study, study, and
study. When I finished one exercise, I went to another one, even if the
teacher didn’t tell me to do so. When everyone was talking after they
finished the exercise, I didn’t talk with them, and just kept going on
to another one. The teacher also helped me to make my English skill
better. He gave me a lot of things to do, and when I didn’t
understand, he explained them to me so clearly, and one day he gave me a
really thin textbook. It was so funny, because they just have like two
or three questions on every one page! It was easy, too, but I did all of
the exercises. Usually, most English textbooks have too much
information, and we often get confused, but in this book, there were
just a few important grammar points that we had to know. It helped me a
lot and I kept doing all these easy things, and my English skill got
better and better.
- After
entering HS, I went to America on a short exchange program. That short
stay motivated me a lot to study English more! My host family was really
awesome. I have been in contact with them very often, since then. I made
a promise to them that I would come back someday again. That’s the
time that I decided to go to America for a longer exchange program. I
took a test, and I passed it, so I fortunately could attend American
high school as a senior.
- At
first, I couldn’t really understand what my teachers were saying, and
every time I raised my hand to ask a question, some teachers ignored me
just because I was an exchange student. I don’t know for sure why they
ignored me, but I think they thought I would not understand their
explanation. But some teachers were not like that. They tried to
communicate with me any time I had a question. So I tried really hard to
understand not only English but also their lectures. After three months,
I was able to understand what they were saying in class. I also was able
to understand what American high school kids were talking about. From
then, my high school life in America became more enjoyable.
- In
the first semester, my grades were not so good. I got Bs mostly, and a
few As. But my Japanese friend who came from the same HS got straight
As! So I realized that if I tried really hard, I could get high grades.
I used to be lazy, thinking that was ok if I couldn’t understand
because I was an exchange student, but I learned from her that I should
try hard like the other American local kids. In the second semester, and
third semester, I got mostly As, and few Bs. I tried so hard, so after a
graduation of high school, I was so happy. I suffered a lot, but this
long stay in America gave me a lot more confidence than before, and more
motivation to study English.
- After
coming back from America, I studied hard, and now I am in Dokkyo
University. I am proud of being a Dokkyo University student. A few people
say, “I wanted to go to Sophia University, but I had to come to this
university, and this school sucks!” But I think Dokkyo is an awesome
university. Most people in this university are well motivated, and I
admire their English skills. I would like to learn as much as I can and I
will always try my best!!!