Name: Tomomi Sasade                                                                                                                                Year: 1996  

 

     

     Of all the subjects I've learned at school,  English has been my favorite subject. When I started learning English at junior high school, it was fresh for me. My English teacher was very poor in pronunciation. He spoke English with a Nagoya accent. He always spoke English slowly and I could listen to it. So when I had an English class taught by a native speaker,  I didn't enjoy it because I was very nervous hoping not to be selected by the teacher. I realized the gap between English I learned at school and what the native speaker used.

     My high school had an international culture course. There were some foreign students in this class. At that time I saw them with curiosity. One day I had an opportunity to talk with a foreign student from Norway. He spoke Japanese very well though he had stayed in Japan for only five months. He said that he was traveling alone and he had stayed in many countries. I was surprised that he could speak three different languages. He was the same age as me. I was embarrassed that I could not speak English at all though I had learned English for more than three years. I started to be interested in learning English to communicate with foreigners. And I started to go to an English language school. But I couldn't learn what I wanted to at that school.

     The English classes in high school were only for the entrance examination. My pleasure for learning English at school was to get a high score in the English tests. As it was, I had learned only reading and writing English, and it was judged only on paper. As a result of this I succeeded in entering this university.

     I had a lot of hope for the university before I came to the university. That is, I thought I could improve my speaking ability much more. I thought there would be a lot of foreign teachers, and that I could communicate with them. It was true that I have a lot of opportunities to talk with my classmates and teachers in English. But I realized that it has no meaning unless I make use of these opportunities for learning language. But the more I learned in my class, the more I realized how poor my English ability was compared with my classmates. Many of my classmates have been abroad and I have never been. When I talked with them in English, I was afraid that they would hear my poor English pronunciation. I became so nervous that I didn't make use of these opportunities. At that time an amazing event in my club activity encouraged me to be relaxed.

     In October I took part in the Discussion for Freshmen at Konan University. There were many students from various universities in the Kansai area. It was the first time for me to be an opinion maker. We discussed "Food Issues." Though my English was not perfect all the members of my table listened to me eagerly. I could be relaxed while speaking English. And to my surprise I got a best contributor prize at my table. It gave me a little confidence for my effort to improve my English ability. I think my club activity was one of the helpful things for my language learning.

     If there is a change in my language learning since coming to the university, I think it is the way of thinking about language learning. I had thought before the goal of studying at university is learning English itself. But I realized that I'm learning English as a tool with which I can study something. Of course it is also a communication tool. I found out that it was important to know about myself if I want to communicate with someone in English.      The video in the class was helpful for me to know about my speaking style. I found out that I didn't shadow enough and I didn't look my partner in the eyes while talking with him or her. At the same time I found some attractive points in my partner's way of speaking English. Next time when I talked with someone in the class, I remembered the video and I tried to imitate them.

     I think I still have to improve in listening. At first I didn't like LL class,  because there were no days I could answer all the questions for homework. I was bored while listening to the story I couldn't understand. I thought I had to enjoy LL class because I had it three times a week. After summer vacation I came to have fun in LL classes. Now I like the LL class except for the test.

     As I said before,  I have never been abroad. I hope to go to America. It is such a large country that I can't imagine it. I'd like to go there to study as an exchange student if I can. It is my goal at university. But I think I should have a clear purpose for studying in the US. This year I want to try to do more things not only in the classes but also outside the classes. And I want to find something attractive for me to study.