English Essay by Brian Southwick
26 Learning a foreign Language ＲＥＡＤＩＮＧ (slow) (fast)　

　　In my essay last week, I wrote about learning French in junior high and high school. In this week’s essay, I will tell you about my experience learning a different foreign language, Japanese.
　　The grammar of the English and French languages is not too different, and there are many words from French in the English language. For example, the English word journalist comes from the French word jour, which means “day”. On the other hand, Japanese is not at all like English. So, studying Japanese is much harder for me.
　　I do many things to improve my Japanese ability. First, I study Chinese characters, or kanji, every day. I try to learn two new characters each day, and I also review characters I have already studied. Second, I study Japanese grammar with a textbook written for English speakers. Third, I use the old Japanese textbooks my eldest child, Thomas, used in first and second grade. I can study many new words by using the books, and I can also read stories that Japanese children know. Picture books for children also help me: when I don’t know the meaning, the pictures help me understand. Finally, I listen to the people around me and try to understand what they are saying. If I hear a word I don’t know, I write it down in a notebook and look it up later in my dictionary.
　　I am lucky to be able to study Japanese in Japan. Japanese is used around me all the time. For Japanese junior high school students studying English, there aren’t many chances in daily life to talk with native speakers. But, there are radio and television programs in English, and video stores have many English language movies. Public libraries have children’s books written in English. We can use the Internet to meet pen pals and exchange e-mail in English. Finally, there are Japanese English teachers at school, who are happy to speak English to students. There are many ways we can improve our ability to communicate in a foreign language.


＜注＞　
essay（エッセイ，随筆），experience（経験，体験），grammar（文法），
journalist（ジャーナリスト，新聞記者，報道記者），
on the other hand（他方では），not at all（少しも〜でない），
improve（上達させる），ability（能力），character（文字），review（復習する），
textbook（教科書），eldest（一番年上の），meaning（意味），look up（調べる），
all the time（いつも），daily life（日常生活），native speaker（母語話者），
radio（ラジオ），television（テレビ），pen pal（文通友達），
who（関係代名詞，非制限用法，theyに置き換えて読むとよい），communicate（伝達する）


Question and Answers:  Please answer the following questions in English in a complete sentence, with a subject and　a verb.


Q1. What is an English word that comes from the French word jour?

A1.

Q2. Why is Japanese a difficult language for Brian to learn?

A2.

Q3. When Brian hears a word he doesn’t understand, what does he do?

A3.

Q4. Can we use the Internet to improve our English skills?

A4.

Q5. What do you do to improve your English ability？

A5


＜解答例＞

A1. It is journalist.

A2. Because Japanese is not at all like English

A3. He writes it down in a notebook and looks it up later in his dictionary.

A4. Yes, we can.

A5. 以下のような答えで可。他の答えでも英文として合っていれば可。
　　I listen to a ‘Radio English Conversation Program’.
　　I watch English language movies.
　　I talk with the ALT at (my) school.