1. Study abroad
This poem shows my experience of studying abroad. When I was in second grade of high school, I went to Oneonta, N.Y. to study music. It was my first trip to abroad. There were a lot of difficult caused by English. I barely arrived at university where a music camp had. I could not understand staffs, roommate, teachers. I did not have companies from Japan, so I was the only person who cannot speak English well. But I had my weapon, saxophone. I tried to express my idea through music, not in English. Gradually, many people understood me and talked to me. We opened up our heart through music. (109 words)
2. Sing in English
When I was in second grade in the high school, I sang “Memory” from a musical “Cats”. In the musical, “Memory” is sung by Grizabella, who is oppressed by other cats. In the song, she songs her desire; she wants to be accepted them. I feel painful and unbearable.
The difference between singing in Japanese and English appears on my behavior. When I sing in English, I can feel like I become another person. That is because English brings me the so-called exoticism. I am not so good at speak from the heart in public. English helps me to act Grizabella. (101 words)
3. Harry Potter and a Japanese girl
Harry Potter put a spell on me.
When I was about ten or eleven, my father’s friend gave me DVDs of Harry Potter. First, I enjoyed it with Japanese dubbing. Through watching it again and again, I wanted to hear the actors’ and actresses’ real voice. So, the second I tried to watch it with subtitles, no dubbing. I remembered almost all lines in Japanese, I could understand even with no subtitles.
After I watched one of movie from Harry Potter series, I started to read books of them. I read them at least 20 times, and I wanted to read them in the original text.
I like reading books in both of Japanese and English, watching foreign movies because of Harry Potter. (123 words)
4. Summer course
During summer vacation, I went to school everyday to study for the entrance exam for the university. My school had some courses, so I took the one for a long English passage reading comprehension question. My homeroom teacher had the class. When he read passages, my head became heavier and heavier. Alphabets started to move on the paper; I fought off sleepiness. I doubted whether I become to be able to understand an English passage. But end of the course, I became good at reading it. After the summer vacation, my scores went up well. I cannot thank him enough. (100 words)
5. In English major
I decided to take sub-major. When I visited a professor in charge, she said “It is said that taking English classes as sub-major is hard. Are you ready for it?” I said “I’m okay. I’ll do hard.” After classes start, I regret taking them. In the class, a lot of words I don’t know are used. I don’t know the students taking classes together. What is more, I have a lot of homework (I never speak complaint about it). But I can get knowledge about many things and it also helps my music activities. Now, I don’t regret learning about English in Gunma University. (104 words)
6. Texting
I made friends a lot in US. After I came back to Japan, we sent messages each other. But there is a time difference of thirteen hours between Japan and NY. So, the time we can chat in real time is not so long. Usually I receive message from NY at midnight or dawn. Soon I wake up, I reply to her. Sometimes this talk has been had until now. Mainly we talk about our school life and music. She learns music education in her university, so we speak the same language. Our friendship and discussion will go on. And I hope to meet her again someday. (107 words)
