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- Name: Yukiyo Kojima
- Year: 1997
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My father also studied English at Nanzan
University. But he majored in economics, so he learned English by
himself. As you know, Nanzan has tried hard to make students study
English even if they do not major in foreign language. He was one of
them like that, I think. Anyway, since I was little I heard English from
him. He often taught me English words and their meanings. And he made me
listen to so many Beatles songs. It also helped me learning English.
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My father seemed to want me to be an
excellent English speaker. Of course, so did I. I wanted to be like a
real American. So my father let me enter English conversation school
when I was 9 years old. That class had about 15 students. We learned
English using many cards, videos and songs. Sometimes an American
assistant teacher came to our class to give us a chance to speak to a
native speaker. I still felt I was made to learn English.
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JHS, I learned only grammar and how to read for almost all of the class.
So I did not have a chance to have a conversation with friends in
English. I don’t think I wsa able to improve my skill of speaking in
JHS.
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I did not have the chance to speak English in class at HS, either. I
studied English in order to enter the university where I wanted to go.
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So I was looking forward to studing at Nanzan.
As I expected, there were a lot of students who could speak English
fluently even if they had never been abroad. I was shocked as well as
surprised. Because in JHS and HS, thanks to my high score in an English
examination every time, I was envied by students around me. But it was
my turn to envy students around me. They could speak English like
natives even if they had never experienced a stay in an English speaking
country. I tried to speak like them. The best way of being a good
speaker, I thought was speaking to anybody positively. So I tried hard
to speak to them and imitate them. One day I felt that I could talk with
my friends in fluent English. From then I thought that to pretend to be
an American or any other English speaking person was another way of
improving my speaking skill. Using so many gestures, smiling and over
reacting. They are so useful, I believe. If you really want to speak
English like a native, Please try them! They are sure to be
helpful.
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the way, my goal this year is to attend all English classes without
Japanese. I believe I can. I can tell the next year’s freshmen to be
positive.
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