Name: Maiko Kawai

Year: 1997

 

 

     It was an accident, I think, that I met English for the first time. My cousin, who was only five years old at that time, went to America when I was in the second year of elementary school. I didn't care whether he went to America or the South Pole. As a matter of fact, I felt happy because we were living together and always quarreling. I don't remember clearly, but I must have said something foolish to his mother. She proudly said to me, " You can't talk with my boy from now on because he will be a fluent speaker of English."  It gave me a great shock. In fact, even now I can't understand what shocked me. Possibly I may have been jealous of his bright future, or perhaps I might have liked him in my heart of hearts and felt sad that the wall of language would separate us. In any case, I decided to start learning English.

     I tried to learn it on my own with the intention of surprising my cousin and his mother. Fortunately for me, there was an English textbook which my uncle had used in his boyhood. I began by reading the textbook but I soon got tired of doing the same things, as is often the case with small children.

     I met English again five years later, in JHS. I suppose I was lacking in effort even though I liked English. I neither prepared nor reviewed my lessons. Of course no pains, no gains.

     I realized that I was far behind in English when I was a HS student. No matter how hard I studied English, the blank of three years was too big for me to fill in. My hatred toward English gradually grew deeper. English had tortured me for two years.

     I was greatly impressed by the concept, "Regard English as English" which a teacher of English taught me. I felt as if I suddenly saw a gleam in the long dark tunnel.

     I changed my ways of English learning according to the new concept. First, I decided to use an English-English dictionary as much as possible looking up the meaning of English words. Frankly speaking, this way gave trouble to me; however, I believed it would be helpful once I got used to it. Second, I took care not to become a translator when reading English novels or something. Most teachers teach their students how to read English textbooks by translating them into Japanese; accordingly, we have the habit of doing the same thing. I don't think such a habit is good, because it is unnatural. We should read an English book as we read a Japanese one. Last, I tried to memorize English words with sentences or pictures. I understand that the separation of English and Japanese is the basis of a new concept.  

     English teaching would be changed if this concept spread over Japan. I suppose we Japanese tend to regard English as code words or something, that is to say, as part of Japanese. For example, a word "dog" reminds us of a word "inu", which means the word "dog" plays as a kind of code word for "inu". Naturally, such a concept prevents us from acquiring natural English.

     I learned the importance of making mistakes, which has made me think deeply about speaking English since coming to the university. I don't think we non-native speakers need to speak English fluently and perfectly like native speakers. I sometimes happen to hear non-native speakers speaking English in movies or something. Some have an Italian accent, some have a German one. They, of course, make some mistakes in grammar, pronunciation and so on; however, their English sound fresh and even comfortable. Perhaps I might just like Italian or German, but I am sure that we can be good speakers of English, which means a positive speaker, by making mistakes actively.

     Finally, I would like to mention my personal opinion about the learning of English. We English learners should have our own thoughts on English, I think. Our thoughts reasonably differ from person to person. I wrote mine in this composition, but some may agree with me and others may not. Of course I can't deny that not all my opinions are true. I believe, however, it is important that we should have a basic opinion about what we are learning.