Name: Mio Mizutani

Year: 1997

 

 

         I like English now, but I didn't like it when I started learning English. It was in the 7th grade, and one reason I didn't like studying English was that it was a compulsory subject. I was always wondering why we had to study English. Another reason is that I felt I was inferior to my classmates in English. When I started learning English, most of them had studied English at a cram school for at least two or three months while I hadn't. They knew much more about English, and I sometimes couldn't catch up with them because they were talking about English words they had learned at a cram school. Moreover, some of them said, "Today's English class wasn't so difficult. We had already learned what we did in today's class at a cram school." The more I heard classmates talking about English, the more I felt an inferiority complex.

     In winter of the next year, I met an English song which made me interested in English. I was impressed so much that I really wanted to sing like her. ( I had listened to some English songs, but I never felt such impression.) I decided to study how to pronounce it so that I could sing as well as her as much as possible. So, I practiced English pronunciation very hard (very hard but fun!) Since then, I've always read English books aloud or sing English songs, being careful of pronunciation. As I practiced more and more, I found myself interested not only in pronunciation but in English itself.

     Through six years in JHS and HS, what I did to improve my  English was simply listening to English songs, watching American movies, studying grammar and learning words by heart. As for listening to songs, I tried to memorize them and to imitate the singer's pronunciation, while as for English grammar, I solved as many problems as I could and then tried to master the problems I couldn't understand completely. In English study, it was most difficult and hateful for me to learn words. But learning words was necessary for improving my English, so I hit on an idea to remember words in a fun way. I read some words and recorded them. Then, I listened to them and repeated after the tape many times. This way of studying was very good and useful, as I was interested in pronunciation. I could study not only words but pronunciation. In this way, I had studied English hard and acquired knowledge about it, but I could hardly speak English because there was no chance to speak English.

     Learning English at Nanzan University, however, changed me. I have a lot of chances to speak English here in this university; in OC and Workshop class, everyone tries to use English as much as possible. At first, using English was really hard as I was not used to it, and I was afraid of making mistakes when I spoke English. But, to my surprise, I came to enjoy it soon. Talking to classmates in English let me think how we could continue talking in English. I realized we talk by means of not only words but facial expressions or gestures and also that eye contact was really important in a conversation. Before, I didn't think eye contact was so useful because I talked to Japanese and we could express almost everything we wanted to say, so we could understand without eye contact. But in English, I have difficulty talking to my friends and I have much more eye contact, because it makes me feel like we are listening to each other seriously even when we are silent, and I can be relaxed. Eye contact helped me communicate in English.

         I've learned that learning a language is getting used to the language. Getting used to it means not studying its grammar but speaking it actually. I think my English improved by using English, so I'll try to use English as much as I can.