Practice, practice and ...practice

I have changed my ways of learning English and focused on speaking (by reading aloud) rather than writing. Once my mouth has understood the grammars, my motivation for learning will be inspired a lot.

"I want to express my opinions using this expressions or these words. Oh, how should I describe the situation??"

That means that I want to improve and enhance the vocabulary and it's like the situation when we are hungry (or starving).

I came to think that I don't even know how to use basic English words for speaking.

Of course, if I see the words, I can understand what the words mean.

Therefore, I decided to learn the junior high school level's English words again by reading them aloud and bought a book about the basic vocabulary and started to learn them. I focus on memorizing the words with the full sentences. If I learn the sentences themselves, I can describe the different situations by changing the words in the sentences.

When I was in my room, I concentrated on reading them aloud. On the other hand, when I am in the train or the bus, I read the vocabulary book. And then..., when I talked with my friends and classmates, I tried to use English words I memorized as much as I could.

In addition, I applied for a program called "Speaking partner program" at the university and I met two American friends through this program and supported their stay in Japan. I helped them to learn Japanese and went to the tourist places with them on weekends. Going the tourist places with them make me become interested in the tour guide. I tried to have chances to speak English as much as I could.

A half year later, one of my American friends (speaking partner) said to me,

"Keita, how long have you been learnimg English?"

"I have been learning English since I was a junior high school. However, I couldn't speak English when I graduated from university."

", which means it took only a year to make English come out naturally from your mouth!?

Good job!! For me, I have been staying a year, however, my Japanese is not perfect.

The half year's improvements of my English made him surprised a lot. Of course, my vocabulary was not large at that time, but I didn't have difficulty in communicating with him so much

For your information, he invited me to his house in Colorado during thanks giving day, which was the good opportunity to learn about the culture of America. He supported me a lot to proofread my thesis when I stayed in his house. .. In addition, his parents treated me very nicely while staying their house. (I think they heard from him about his stay in Japan.)

After he went back to America, I took the TOEFL test and got the score.

And then..., I decided to apply for studying abroad program.

I just wanted to go to a foreign country to study abroad.