The theme of this book is my several experience that gave me an important opportunity regarding English. The book shows stories of me, a Japanese student, learning the difficulty and enjoyment of English while learning English and getting advice from various people. I used 10 memories especially imagining the experience of feeling about English and improving my English skills. Each poem is important for understanding how I have been able to acquire and grow my English skills since I didn’t know English. I also felt that it was important to convey the joy and sense of accomplishment of learning English.
This poem describes a moment when I attend the English lesson in junior high school. I was sitting in the corridor seat. For the first time, my teacher taught me English grammar. Before the lesson, my classmates and I were talking, “What English is like?”, “I’m worried.”, etc. When we were feeling negative, the teacher said “English is like a game! You don’t have to worry about it because English lessons seem like it!”. With the words in mind, we were able to enjoy the lessons in a very refreshed state. I felt that I would like to continue learning English without forgetting this fun.
This poem describes a moment when I attend the English lesson in junior high school. I was sitting in the front seat. I saw a movie spoken in English for the first time. Before I and my classmates saw the movie, we were very excited because most of us have only seen Japanese movies. During the movie, I was fascinated by the powerful voices of the characters in the movie, but I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. I felt I had to study English harder to understand what they were saying. This event led to an opportunity improve the listening skill.
This poem describes a moment when I attend the English lesson in high school. I was sitting in the back seat. I and my classmates were working on a long reading comprehension problem with the aim of passing the college entrance exam. There were many students around me who were aspiring to the same university as me and who could solve the problem more than I did. During the class, my teacher advised me “The balance between careful reading and speed reading is very important in the long reading comprehension.”. This event helped me solve long comprehension problems and gave me the opportunity to pass the exam.
This poem describes a moment when I attend the English lesson in high school. I was sitting in the front seat. I and my classmates were divided into several groups to discuss a topic in English. At first, it was difficult to convey my opinion to others and I couldn’t have a good discussion, but thanks to the various advices given by the teacher, I was able to have fun discussion the topic. Sharing opinions and summarizing them led to improvement of English skill. This event was very helpful to me because I thought I needed the skill in English for the future.
This poem describes a moment when I was playing soccer with my friends. We were in the big park. While playing soccer, a foreigner picked up the ball flying away. I tried to thank him in English, but this was my first time talking to a foreigner, so I was worried if he would understand my English words. But with courage, I said to him, “Thank you for picking up the ball!”. Then he smiled and said, “You are welcome!”. Hearing the words, I became very happy. This event was a valuable experience for me to experience the joy of speaking English.
Kotaro Miyazaki 