Basic Study

I began to read 速読英単語 several days ago, because my grandson, who is in the second grade of senior high school, was reading the book while staying in my home during the Bon holidays. He was using 必修編.

I became interested in the book and bought 上級編. I make it a rule to read one essay in the book every day. There are fifty essays in it and I will be able to finish reading it in 50 days. It is useful for me to increase English vocabulary and I can make sure if I remember the English words, using red semitransparent plastic board. I feel as if I took a university entrance examination.


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A Returnee from New York

I attended the English conversation class yesterday morning. My new teacher never overlooks my mistakes in pronunciation, sentences and words. I’m very glad to meet a good teacher. Pronunciation is the key to good communication. I am often corrected in my pronunciation of L and R, V and B, S and TH, etc., etc.

There is a 13-year-old returnee from New York in our class. She came back to Japan one year ago. She is now studying in an international school in Hyogo Prefecture. Her pronunciation is superb and is quite different from mine. I sometimes can’t follow her as well as when I watch a movie in English. She uses her tongue and lips more effectively and opens her mouth more widely than I when speaking English. I need to record my English and check it more frequently.



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English and I

I’m thinking about what my purpose of learning English is. I’m not young, so I don’t need it in my job. I can live in Japan without using it. Why do I want to study English? To keep my brain in shape? If it’s only to keep my brain young, there are lots of things I could do; read Japanese books, keep a diary in Japanese and so forth. I have to conclude that I like to study English, so I make an effort to improve my English skills. Listening and reading are input and speaking and writing are output. These four skills interact with one another. Keeping a diary, I think, is very useful if we want to improve conversation skill, but only if we write quickly. Now I can’t write quickly. I have to refer to a dictionary and a grammar quite often while writing. Writing isn’t so easy. When I can write English at natural speed, I will be able to speak naturally. There is no shorter way to acquire a foreign language. I am going to study English little by little.



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