Name: Nami Satoh          

Year: 1996           

 

                                                                                                                   

        I started to learn English when I was a first year student in junior high school. As soon as the English classes started, my stereotype about studying English changed a lot. "Have to study" changed into "want to study". The most decisive reason why I came to like English was that my English teacher was a really good teacher. He taught us not only grammar or vocabulary but easy conversations as well. He asked almost all of students in class easy questions in English. At first, I became confused because I did not know English very well, but later I found it interesting to speak English, even one word. Then I came to look forward to his English questions. Although I was still only thirteen, I decided to study English at university.

     As I thought like that, I entered a girls' high school that specialized in English education. I studied English harder in high school than in junior high school. I did all the homework the teachers gave us. I studied to get perfect scores on vocabulary and idiom tests which we had every week.

     Moreover, I never forgot to prepare for every class. That is all I did at high school. I studied English only for the tests and the entrance examination. I thought that English was difficult to study and I had lost a desire to be able to speak English. But one of my friends in high school told me that she talked with a foreigner in English on the street. She said that she used only easy English but she talked with him all in English. When I heard that, I was surprised and a little bit shocked. I envied her. At that time, I noticed that I had not made efforts to be able to speak English at all. Therefore I came to have a desire to speak English, again.

     After I came to university, I was surprised how different the university classes were from those of my high school. In high school, we just watched the videos and did some exercises. Some teachers spoke English all the time,  but we were not given chances to speak English. It was boring and unexciting to me. But the university classes were so different. The teacher gave us a lot of activities, advised about English conversation, sang songs, and sometimes took us outside. These things made me realize that English was not something to study but something to enjoy. And we can learn not only from textbooks but in many ways.

     For example, in Workshop* classes, I found that there were various ways to focus on English. In LL* classes,  the Japanese teacher spoke English. It was really new and fresh to me. These classes changed my way of thinking about learning English so much.

     In April, however,  I was so nervous about speaking English that I could not enjoy the English classes very much. Because my first partner for the video conversation* was a girl who spoke English very well, I thought that my English was poor. I came to think then that I was the worst English speaker in the class. I did not want to talk with anyone in English. But I learned a lot from this negative experience.      First, I realized how important the classmates were in learning English. They encouraged me. For example, when I finished talking with a good English speaker on the phone for homework,  she said to me, "You did it!  You talked all in English!" When I heard this, I became so happy that I could have confidence in my speaking ability. I had not noticed that talking with Japanese people in English was such a helpful thing until then.

     Second, I learned that I did not have to care about making mistakes in speaking English. When I minded making mistakes, I could not speak English well. But since I realized that mistakes helped me, I felt easy and talked in English positively.

     I want to work in the service industry so that I can still keep learning English after graduation. I want to communicate face to face with people, of course with foreigners. And I want to make the most of my English. I want to meet and have conversations with as many people as possible in both English and Japanese.

     Finally, if some of next year's first year students get nervous like me, I would like to advise them to relax,  and not to care about mistakes. I want to say,  "Nobody cares about your mistakes!" I want them to remember that learning English is something to enjoy.

     My first year in this university became a precious experience. This year was the most interesting and exciting year in my English learning history.