- Four
years abroad: three years in Singapore and one year in Utah, U.S.
-
- I
have been learning English for 14 years. My first experience to touch
English was when I was 6 years old. I started to go to an English school
for children. I studied the alphabet and some words like Apple, Dog,
Run, and so on. However, I don’t remember much maybe because I was too
young. I quit after 2 years and moved to Singapore.
- I
lived in Singapore for 3 years from 8 years-old until 11 years-old
because of my father’s job. When I was there, I went to a Japanese
school and of course I spoke only Japanese in the school also at home. I
didn’t have much opportunity to learn English at that time. But my
Japanese school had an English curriculum only twice a week. I think it
was better than nothing. I studied or rather played in English, singing
a song and watching English movies. It was really fun for me. After 3
years, my English improved a little. I remember I could say, “How much
is this?” or “ What is this?” which is necessary to live.
- I
came back to Japan and entered Japanese JHS. I can say this was my first
studying English. However I didn’t like to learn English at all.
Because studying in JHS was boring for me. It was my first time to learn
grammatical things, which were really complicated. And it was a
different way to learn English than enjoying and singing. My stock of
English ability that came from the experience of my stay in Singapore
helped me during my JHS years. But I faced on a problem after entering
HS. I didn’t have any knowledge of English because I had been escaping
from learning English Grammar. I couldn’t get good points on the test,
and my grades were bad. I was very tired of studying English grammar. I
didn’t agree with the Japanese education system that we don’t study
useful English, which is talking and listening, but we only study
reading and writing. So I started to think I wanted to be an English
user so I decided to study abroad in the U.S.
- I
left for America, Utah State, in the middle of the 2nd year
of HS school. This experience changed my life a lot. I went to a public
high school. Of course my English was very poor at first. So it was hard
to communicate with people. I couldn’t understand what they were
saying and I couldn’t speak at all. But everybody was very kind to me
so I had lots of opportunities to meet people and talk. Gradually, maybe
after three months, my listening ability improved and I started to
understand what they were saying. But I still had a big difficulty with
understanding lectures. After another three months, my English ability
improved rapidly. I found that if I could hear what people said, it
helped my speaking because I could imitate what they were saying. After
one year abroad, my English got much better than before.
- After
I got back to Japan, I entered Dokkyo University and I noticed it was
not enough. I can speak and listen, but I need to know grammar. I am
taking a teaching course in this university and if I teach someone, it
is necessary to teach him or her the structure of English sentences. But
I can’t!! So now I am studying English grammar for the first time in
my life. But now, I often think what is the good way to learn English. I
think that most important way to learn a language is having fun, not
studying grammatical things. Because language is not only the way to
enter the university but it is a tool to communicate with someone. We
have to think about this education style and we have to change something
for the future.
- I
want go abroad to England and I want to study a little bit more. I want
to have an English ability that is useful for my future job.