Essay 1-03b: 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 ever after now. 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 a 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. Also, I studied kanji and passed the official Kanji Examination 2 grade. At the same time, I passed the official English Examination pre-2 grade as well.

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 study English for the TOEIC in the club as well.

I think that learning languages need to spend long term. I like to learn foreign languages. I want to continue to learn these languages constantly as long as possible. I really want to be able to speak English frequently, and I'd like to go abroad someday.
Thank you for reading.

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