Hatayama 1

Yukai Gilbert Hatayama Miss E English 1101-073 26 September 2013 English as a Second Language I was born in the U.S. but my parents are both Japanese, so I went back to Japan when I was two years old. Because of that reason, I have an American citizenship, but I cannot speak English as well as native. In Japan, I studied English for six years, and I made a rule of studying English. That is To understand, read and write, English, I must not study it. I must enjoy, feel, and experience it by finding each representations of English and Japanese. There are three stories to find these principles. I am an American citizen; therefore, I was required to take SAT to apply American universities. When I saw SAT questions at first time, I felt I am reading some ancient Greek letters. I could not understand at all. I decided to go to a cramming school to prepare for the skills for SAT. What I struggled first time is SAT vocabularies. I tried to do many ways to get them, such as writing them on a notebook many times, read them aloud, and translate English to Japanese; however, I could remember only a few words. I felt like my road for succeeding on SAT was broken. At that time, I did not have any ideas for breaking throw SAT vocabularies. I asked my teacher to get some hints for studying SAT words, and what my teacher told me was really memorable and I will never forget it. My teachers name was Mr. Eric Engsberg, who taught about TOEFL, TOEIC,

Hatayama 2

IELTS, and SAT. Japanese people are needed to take TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS to show their English level for universities and companies. At first, he asked me just a question. Are you studying English? First of all, I completely could not get what he mean. I thought he might say I need to study harder on vocabularies, but it was not. He said, Studying English is a reason why you cannot get SAT words. Then he taught me about affixes, prefix and suffix, and roots of English words. He said, English words are kind of a puzzle. There are a few words that you must remember; on the other hand, most of English words have their own origin and roots. Find the affix and roots, then you can guess the meaning and become easy to remember them. I never forgot what he told me because it was really helpful and impactful. For example, the word conductor can be divided into three parts, which are Con-, duct, and -or. In this word, con- means together, -duct- means to lead someone or something, and or means doer, then add all together, conductor means a person who leads someone or something together. It makes sense. I was shocked because my high school teachers never told me in English classes. After I got used to do that way, which is what my teacher told me, my English level was improved. I went to local high school in Boston when I was fourteen to fifteen. Although I got a grade A on English class in Japanese junior high school, I could not use English at all. I could not communicate with other students and classmates; for example, I could not listen and understand what classmates and teacher said and I could not say what I want to do, so I could not order my lunch at a cafeteria, and it was continued for 3 days. I felt that I would die if I could not order to get my lunch forever.

Hatayama 3

What I did at first is I tried to copy what other students said when they ordered something, and I memorized and wrote down my notebook about it. I did that action not only the cafeteria, but also in all classes and daily life. Luckily, everyone was so kind to me, they always told me how to use English in many situations. Then I tried to use new words again and again, and finally, my basis of English had been built. The story in previous paragraph, which is about high school in Boston, is a kind of success story. And why could I succeed in Boston is that I got tons of experiences by using and saying English in a real world. It is true that I made many mistakes in my English, such as pronunciation, spelling, and grammar; however, these mistakes are also one of really important experience to improve my English. There are some students who have a lot of knowledge of English grammar or writing in Japan, but I think I cannot say they understand real English. Even if how many grammars and words they know, there are useless grammars in the U.S., the real world. Also, there is much slang in the U.S., I think the way to know and get them is using, hearing, and experiencing them in the actual life. There are other kinds of experience for me. I call it regret. When I talk with American students, sometimes I cannot reply what they expect or want because my English vocabulary and listening skills are poor. Moreover, I often cannot translate Japanese to English and that is the strongest regret for me. I cannot say what I want to tell in English. Every time I face these problems, I always think if I could translate Japanese to English correctly and completely, my destiny would be changed. Although this kind of experience looks negative, it always motives me to try to improve and

Hatayama 4

develop my English levels. I met a man who is teaching English listening and speaking in ELTI (English Language Training Institute) and his name is Mr. Seth Stroud. What he gave me is a question of a representation. For example, a word race can be translated in Japanese; however, what Japanese people think about race is not exactly the same as what American think about it because a historical background of race is different from the U.S. to Japan. It is true that a racial problem had never been occurred in Japan; therefore Japanese recognition of race is different with American. I started thinking what a representation is after taking his class. The meaning of to represent something is to tell somebody by using words, pictures, and language. Dividing represent to prefix and present, it means to present again. Ancient people tried to leave what they saw or felt, and what presented in front of them; however, I think it is not what they wanted to tell exactly. What I mean is when you see a beautiful flower, how are you going tell somebody about it? There are many ways to tell and represent it, such as taking pictures, and using languages and words. The results of that action, many nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs have been produced and now these are still producing, such as slangs. I have my own experiences of English. I have my own representations of English. As a reader, I am trying to imagine and guess what an author exactly wanted to tell and express to a reader. As a writer I am trying to show and describe what I feel and see to my reader. Even now, I am not satisfied with my writing because I do not think I could express my true feelings in English, and also I cannot express my feelings in

Hatayama 5

Japanese; however, this experience of regret makes me encouraging to improve more about the true English, and I am enjoying this indescribable feeling.