In Switzerland, I realized that English is a very important tool to communicate with foreigners. I decided to learn English again after returning home.
Japanese Edition
Learning English
As a common Japanese, I had learned English not to communicate with foreigners but to get knowledge from printed matters. I thought, "I am too old to begin studying conversation from the first.” I tried to learn the English grammar again and to utilize the grammar and memorized English words for writing my thought in English. Because I was not able to get a suitable English grammar textbook, I learned English writing with a correspondence course. It distressed me at first because I was able to remember Japanese words from my memorized English words but not able to remember these English words from Japanese words. Gradually it became reversible. I think the correspondence course improved my English speaking skills a little.
At the same time, I began to learn English conversation on NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) radio program. I had thought, "I cannot speak English but I can read a little." My confidence was crashed. I knew how I slowly read English. I planned to continue this program not only for improving communication skills but for fastening reading speed.
When I happened to talk about my English learning to an old senior colleague of mine, he introduced an English conversation classroom in Wakayama Shakai Hoken Center to me. In the classroom my teacher is always a young native English speaker. My classmates consist of young women like my daughter and retired old men like me. Because I can think of various topics with the classmates and talk about them, I like this classroom very much.
Renamed April 18, 2001
Revised November 25, 2001
Revised July 16, 2005