Narrativas coletadas por Tim Murphy

Name: Yukiyo Kojima
Year: 1997


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.
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.
In 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.
And 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.
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.
By 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.