Essay 1-03a: My Language Learning History

I think learning languages is one of lifelong learning. Needless to say, I've been learning Japanese since I was born. Also, I've learned English for years and I started to learn Spanish since last year. I'm gonna continue learning these languages aftertime. Today, I'm gonna show you how I've been learning languages until today.

First, in my childhood, I don't remember clearly, but I think I just heard and copied what people said. I think it is the only way I could learn Japanese at that time. I've lived in Kumamoto for a long time, so I've also learned Kumamoto dialect at the same time. I've learned these 2 languages from people around me. First of all, I picked up Japanese as my first language by hearing my parents' voices, and then I picked up Kumamoto dialect by hearing my relatives' voices and neighbors' voices. However, what I could then was just to copy. During I was in preschool, I got to be able to tell what I think about.

Next, I learned how to write Japanese characters at an elementary school. It might be difficult for me who I was then to learn Japanese because it has hiragana, katakana and kanji. I learned figure as well at elementary school. When I was the fourth grade, I started playing baseball, and then I learned technical terms for baseball.

Entering junior high school, I started learning English. I wasn't interested in English at all then and I got bad grades every single term. I also learned Japanese Classics. The subject was too boring, so I really didn't like it. In junior high school, I had belonged to the soft tennis club for 3 years, so I learned the rules and technical terms for soft tennis.

At senior high school, I had studied about food mainly. In fact, I wanted to be a pastry chef then. Though, when I was third grader in the school, I thought that I wanted to learn English more, so I decided to go to university. The senior high school stands at a back district part of Kumamoto, so most people speak Kumamoto dialect. That's why I learned Kumamoto dialect and some technical terms there.

In this university, I'm specializing in foreign languages. I've been learning English and Spanish in this university. I like to learn Spanish. My peers of this university are from different regions. They have unique accent and dialect one another. It's really interesting to hear. I don't belong to any club in this university, but I'm a staff of the English Lounge, so I talk to exchange students sometime. Recently, I participate in a unofficial English conversation club, and the club acts on Tuesday.

I think that learning languages need to continue to learn by spending long term. I like to learn foreign languages. I want to continue to learn these languages constantly as long as possible. I'd like to go abroad someday.
Thank you for reading.

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