私の英語人生「どのようにして英語を学んだのか」（１）
How I learned English (1)
1) Early start was decisive.
As in other fields of studies, in the study
of English, learning it
at the earliest possible time in life is
decisive, especially in learning
its pronunciation or intonation.
In my case it was totally accidental, but
fortunate that I started
to listen to the real English spoken though
listening to the English
programs broadcast by Radio Japan, the Voice
of America, or a lot of
other foreign radio stations throughout the
world.
I remember it was when I was still in my
fifth grade at elementary
school that I began to listen to some announcements
or news in English
and of course the sounds of the English language
attracted me very
much , and I started to imitate the announcers'
way of speaking
English many times a day, feeling as if I
were a native speaker of
English. I continued this way of learning
English until I graduated
from elementary school.
2) My teacher of English at junior high
admired my pronunciation!
I still remember the day when I started
to learn English at junior
high school. I know I shall never forget
the day!
My teacher of English was Mr. Yasuo Masutani.
He was a graduate
of Osaka Univerisity of Foreign Studies, and
he was one time working for
a trade company in Osaka. No wonder his English
ability was excellent.
We often saw him speaking English with his
fellow English teachers at
the teachers' room. We respected and envied
him. And of course his
pronunciation of English was wonderful and
natural like a native
speaker.
Every morning we junior high freshmen greeted
him saying " Ohayo-
gozaimasu" in Japanese, he always responded
to us in English, " Good morning".
So we were surprised but we loved him. In
those days, back in 1950's there
were very few people who spoke English in
the country-side. He was a very
rare example.
And of course, he was not only extremely
excellent in his English, but also was
very enthusiastic and very great in his character.
He even organized an English
speaking club, and taught us how to speak
English by using Mr.Tadaichi Hirakawa's
Radio English "Come come English"
textbook. I still remember the conversational
expressions he taught us..." What's
wrong with you, Jim? You looked worried."
"I'll have to quit school, because my
father is ill." and etc.
With the help of fellow teachers, he managed
to let us play English dramas.
One play was titled "Moonlight Sonata
" in which Beethoven plays an improvised
piano peice for a blind girl in the city
of Vienna, Austria.
One time he said to me, "Your pronunciation
of English is very good."
He admired my pronunciation, and I was overjoyed
at his words of
praise. So to some extent I was confident
in my English ability.
But some incident happened after a few months
since I started to
study English in junior high school. It was
after the mid-term exam
was over that I realized I was not good at
English at all.
Only my pronunciation was good, but writing and reading abilities
were not good at all. I was totally disappointed at my situation
and
decided to learn at juku school( cram school) near the elementary
school in my town.
My cram school teacher was an interesting
and very enthusiastic
person who liked listening to French chansons.
His method of teaching English to us was
to let us read English aloud and
memorize all the sentences in the textbook! Even
though his
teaching was strict and often painful to
me, my grades improved very
surprisingly, and at the time when I graduated
from junior high
I was the second best student among the classmates.
I can safely say here now that Mr.Masutani's
kind words of praise was
the most powerful influence on my life and
my study of English in
particular.
3) Crisis in my freshman year in senior high
school:
In my freshman year at senior high, as a
matter of fact, I was not
a good student. I had no intention of going
on to college, and did
not study well enough. I got very fat, because
I did not study.
I slept well and did not study English and
other subjects diligently.
I was totally absorbed in club activities
after joining the Newspaper
Club and the Chorus Club. As a result I lived a merry-go-lucky life.
4) Again I was fortunate enough to be taught
by excellent
teachers!
Looking back there was a very good English
teacher, Mr. Ueno,
who strictly compelled us to memorize irregular
verbs, and acquire
a fundamental knowledge of English grammar
every period. We were
afraid of him, so we learned English grammar
very seriously.
But he was not always so strict, sometimes
when he is in good humor,
cheerful and light-hearted, he taught us
English songs, such as
"Row, row your boat, gently down the
stream... "Come and sit by my
side, if you love me, and do not hasten to
bid me adieu. But remember
the red river valley and the cowboy that
loved you so true..."
or Autumn leaves, You are my sunshine.. and
he was good at playing
the piano. When he tried to teach us such
English songs, he arranged
and took us to the music room and taught
us those songs.
So I was very happy in that I was blessed
with good teachers of
English. In my sophomore and senior years
I was fortunate enough to
be taught by Mr.Shibata and Mr.Nagaoka, who
were also excellent in their
own ways. Mr.Shibata was a fluent speaker
of English and he sometimes
spoke in English and told about his experience
of skiing in his home
town in Kanazawa. Mr.Nagaoka was my homeroom
teacher, and was our
teacher of English. As he was a graduate
of Tokyo University of Foreign
Studies, and of course, he was a teacher
of English in the true sense of
the word. Looking back on my junior and senior
high school days, I was
blessed with very good teachers of English,
and I still have very good
memories and very nice impressions about
my first English teacher in
junior high and and my last English teacher
in senior high.
(To
be continued)
２０００．３．２５ All Rights
Reserved by Philip Y. Shibuya
