Essays1-03a: Language Learning History

I'll tell you about my language learning history. I have learned some language since I was a child. My language learning history started in my childhood. Next, I learned Japanese and English at the secondary school. Now, I have learned English and French at KGU.

First, I learned my mother tongue, Japanese, in my childhood. I couldn’t write it and read any Japanese words in the nursery school because anyone didn't teach me. I learned how to write Japanese words at the elementary school for the first time.  When I learned how to write kanji, I tried to write it with a ruler, and my teacher warned me. It was embarrassing memory for me.

I learned Japanese in junior high school and high school. I learned modern and classic Japanese. The classic was more difficult than modern language because we don’t use classic Japanese. I thought the classic like a foreign language. However, I was interested in it in high school because my classic teacher’s class was fun. Especially, I liked the Tale of Genji.

I also learned English in junior high school and high school. I learned grammar there, and I trained reading and listening in high school. I had to remember some sentences in the textbook in junior high school. It was hard for me. In high school, I had special activities to learn English. These were English drama and English summer camp. It was a good chance to speak English teachers who came from overseas.

I learned French at KGU last year. I thought French was more difficult than Japanese because Japanese doesn’t have grammatical gender. It was so difficult for me. However, French has words which are similar to English, so I could understand a little. Saying “bonjour” was the most difficult for me because pronunciation about “r” was not easy. It differs from English. I practiced it every class.

Now, I learn English at KGU. I have some classes to learn English. Reading, Writing, Speaking and listening class are good to make great skill. In the Reading class, we’re learning how to read a newspaper in English. It is interesting for me because I can learn new things in that class. Newspapers written in English have a lot of rules, for example, comma means “and.” If I didn’t take this class, I would not read English newspaper well. I also take the linguistics of English. In this class, I learned about the origin of English. I found that English has a long history and some language affect English.

My language learning history started in my childhood, and I learned Japanese and English at the elementary school, junior high school and high school. In this college, I learned French and English. Through my language learning history, I think that I should study language harder because I can’t speak English fluently even though I have studied English more than 10 years. I have to study honorific words in Japanese because we need it after we graduate from this college. I had learned about language until now, but I need more skill about language. 

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