Week 1

Hi there! This is my first post. Thank you for reading my journal.

Namiko


1.  One new thing that you learned in week 1 in any of your classes at HELP.

　I'm new student and I've spent only four days at classroom. I think it was not much time though, I found my listening skill and speaking skill have been improved undoubtedly. And I realized that keeping practice is most important for language learning.
　Although I came here a month ago and I have some friends who are native speakers, but I hadn't have opportunities to keep listening for long time like I'm doing now at my classes for over five hours total. It was tiredness to keep listening  to what a teacher say carefully at my first class. But after three days I'm getting used to listen to English. I really had fun at classes at my fourth day.
　I take care not to speak my own language at school as much as I can. Anyway, I like myself speaking English and communicating with classmates from different countries.  I was speaking English a lot naturally at school unlike what I did before. Now I can say my speaking is better than before.
　I knew how keeping practice is important for obtaining new language though, I feel that I must do it after I actually experienced some.



2.  One new thing that you learned in week 1 outside of your HELP classes.

 
  I traveled many countries and I always enjoyed different culture, foods, and people every country.But living other country is sometimes stressful and difficult for me. I can't just enjoy living here.I found some differences living in Hawaii and in Japan.
  Most I'm struggling here is food. I usually eat fish, vegetable, and beans and drink green tea in Japan. And in Hawaii, I eat pizza, chicken, and candy, and drink soda which have a lot of sugar. Apparently, there is  very difference between them. My face skin had got worse after I'd stayed here for ten days. So I began to cook for myself. Then, I realized how expensive food is here in Hawaii. I sometimes buy vegetables that cost double the price as it would in Japan.
   Next, I sometimes get troubles in some situation. For example, when I asked where is a water bottle to store staff , they were not nice to answer. When I need more complicated information and ask the customer service, sometimes they don't have accurate information. So I have to ask them many times. This might be my fault though, because my English skill is still low. But still I think they should be more nice and know their works well.  As you know, Japanese service is really polite and careful. I also had worked as customer service, so I think I sometimes care about that.
    Of course, there are not only stressful things here in Hawaii. I like almost people are friendly. In a bus, at restaurant, and at cafe, people talk to me friendly. I couldn't have this experience in Japan. And I found I like talking with people here. 
   I'm having good experiences all time here. I'm impressed when I meet something new and I learn it. And I'm getting used to it and living in Hawaii.



3. Tell me what you think about language learning and other types of learning. Is there any difference?


  I'm going to say that learning English is similar to learning music, because I'm studying music beside English now. There are three similar key points to improve your skills for both: input and output, requiring practices, and having confidence.
  First of all, when you learn English. It is important to listening to English and reading books in English and to speaking and writing. When you learn music, you would be better to listen to a lot of music and you might read scores. And also you will play some instruments or sing, and you might write scores. This strategies are basic to learn language or music. As you learn them, you will take good materials into yourself and you will put what you have learned out.
  Second of all, if you would like to be a fluent speaker or a good piano player, you must practice them hard. I think this is said to all kind of learning in common. When I was child, I didn't like practicing piano much. My teacher always said that I should practice piano at least two hours everyday, if I want to be a good pianist. Now I understand what my teacher told me as you read my journal about one new thing that I learned in week 1 at HELP.
  Finally, lately I found out that having confidence is also important for learning. If you couldn't believe yourself, your speaking or your play will not show your real skills. If you speak English loud with your confidence, they understand what you said. If you play piano with your confidence, your piano tone will bring your emotion.
  It is not easy to acquire new language and become a good musician. I know it takes long time, so I would just like to enjoy learning English and music.


4.      Why do we need learning strategies?

   
  In my opinion, we need learning strategies because it help us to find the answer easily. If you know how to answer the question, they don't puzzle you anymore. It is like learning how to cook or researching how to get where you would like to go. Especially in case of  TOEFL exam, they have conventional questions. So it is important to know how to answer for them.
   For instance, think about cooking, when you cook curry, you will learn how to cook curry first. And you will get ingredients and start to cook. If you don't know how to cook, you must be tired of analyzing its taste and how to make it. When you go to library, you will check your map and decide which transportation you are going to use first. If you don't research how to get there, you must be lost.
   I'm going to take TOEFL iBT exam next month. I've prepared for the test by myself for six months. When I took the model test first time, I had no idea what kind of questions it has, and how I answer for them.  So I took long time to read its questions and answer for them. I couldn't finish it within specified period of time. My scores was going up after I learned strategies for TOEFL exam.
  To sum up, learning strategies promotes efficiency to solve questions and increase the speed of answering. So I need to learn strategies for all section: reading, listening, speaking and writing more, because I need to get high score.