Essays 1-05: Now is to Be a Global Woman!!!~From the Beginning of My Mother Language to My Learning Languages for 19 Years~

I love to communicate with my friends or people!! Anyway, talking with my friends or people make me happy! Everyone likes to talk your friends or people too, I think. So, how have you been learning some languages until now? This time I am going to talk about my learning language history.

First of all, I will talk about my mother tongue, Japanese. When I was born, I heard a mother language, Japanese or mother's voice. Everybody thinks so too, you know. When I was born in 6 months, I began to utter sounds, "PAPA" and "PUPU". When I was 10 months, I began to walk and say "APPLE", "ORANGE" and so on. My mother said to me, "The words which you said for the first time were English words!" It was amazing for me! It seems that I love to sing songs.

Second is English. An encounter of English for the first time is when I was 4 years old. I was very little and shy girl. In my preschool, we had "Play Room" once a week. It was a class that foreigners, such as American, Canadian and Englishman, come to my preschool and talk, communicate and play with her or him in English. Also we sang English songs or read stories in English. All this time was spoken in English. However I didn't understand what she or he says. So I was really afraid of them. I always kept away them and hid behind my preschool teacher. I didn't like English and foreigner at that time.

One day, I saw one of my friends played with foreigner. I gazed at them and I wanted to join them too. It was "English conversation and expression dram class". One of my friends commuted this class, so I commuted it. And then, I gradually began to contact with foreigners. Since I joined this class, I spoke, sang songs, read stories in English. Also we made expression dram in English. I began to like English. Each of them played the role of character. In English expression concert I played the narrator and character of the story in English. But I was such a shy girl that I was very nervous every time. We performed four times a year. In this way, I encountered English and I was interested in English. I had been commuted this class until when I was junior high school 2nd student.

In my junior high school days, my favorite class was English after all. English was my best subject and I studied more. Especially I loved ALT's class, oral communication class. However not only conversation but also I began to study English. In other words these were English grammar, listening, reading and writing. The more I studied English, the more vocabulary increased. So I enjoyed memorizing English vocabulary or reading and writing. I remember that I reviewed English lesson every day.

In my high school days, at first I thought English grammar is sooooo difficult for me! I felt frustrated at that time. Also I lost confidence of my English skills for the first time. Buuuuut I couldn't give up studying English because I have been involved in English until then. This was a signal as studying more and more again.
Another prompt was an encounter of English teacher from 2nd year in high school. She was very cool and energetic woman. She was severe sometimes, but usually she was always very kind and smile. I was fascinated with her. To improve my English skills, I went to her desk and was corrected my writing, reading and grammar. I also was given her workbook every finished using my workbook. Moreover, I heard her English career and her way of improving skills. I was moved whenever I talked with her. Whenever I talked with her and took her class, the attachment to English became strong. Also I thought that I wanted to major in English in University.

In my university life, needless to say, I major in English. However I encountered new languages, Spanish and Korean. When I was a freshman, I learned Spanish. The reason why I took Spanish was because I heard Spanish was the second largest spoken language all over the world. I was interested in it because it has parts of similarity English. The Spanish pronunciation was attractive for me because of dissimilarity pronunciation. If I can take Spanish Ⅲand Ⅳclasses, I want to take these next year.
Now I struggle hard with Korean *hah* It is very special and difficult for me. It looks like sign or code. When I went to Korea, I really didn't understand and I felt I came to different world except for earth. But If I could understand this language, I would be very happy and nice, I thought. Unfamiliar as I am, it will take a long time to memorize its letters and rule. However I like questing things and I am curious! I believe that the day when I feel the moment of interesting will come soon. I want to master English, Spanish and Korean for my university life!

As a conclusion, to learn languages is very important for me and developed myself. There is present myself because there was an opportunity to learn a language. Because there was an encounter with a person and influenced, I have an aim now. Language is a tool to communicate with people, know different cultures. To understand other countries, I have to learn English as a communication tool. To be a global woman, first I have to know myself and Japan deeply. I keep learning anything by using languages.

[941words]