Name: Haruya Motoki

Year: 1997

 

 

     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. 

     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.

             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.