What is an important point to study English?

Now, I’m struggling with English every day because you know, I’m a foreigner, a Japanese. I always have some new discoveries here every day and some of them are not seen in Japan, so I’m sometimes puzzled.

How can I live in another country, America more comfortably? You may advise me a lot of things but I think that it is important for me to understand American culture and to use English better than what I do now.

What do you mean “to use English?” you may say so. I’ll divide “to use English” into three things. The first is reading and the second is writing and the last is speaking.

First, I suppose that reading is not so difficult because I’ve read a lot of English since I was a junior high school student. In addition, Japanese English education emphasizes reading but unfortunately Japanese English education tends to focus on only reading. Therefore, most Japanese can’t write and speak English very well.

Second, as for writing, I need to practice it more hard because I can write simple English but I don’t have enough confident to write academically. In addition, even if in simple sentences I sometimes can’t express fully what I want to tell. OK, I’m going to write English every day by blog or diary. Writing is the only way to improve my writing skill.

The last, about speaking…this is a most difficult obstacle for me! It is difficult to follow conversations and understand detail things. Hmm…but do I have to understand a conversation in detail? Yes, of course but it is not always important thing. If only I can understand a main point, I can keep participating in more conversation! Perhaps, is it most important to grasp the context of conversation?

Registered spring term courses!

I told you that I would take three courses: Integral Theory A, Integral Theory B and Research Writing this spring term at JFKU but I changed some courses today. Because Integral Theory A is not open this spring and if I want to take Integral Theory B, I have to take Integral Theory A as a prerequisite. Therefore, instead of these, I registered “World Religions” and “Psychosynthesis” this spring term.

Umm... to tell you the truth, I already read some reading assignments of Integral Theory B. It was not a waste of time to read “Integral Spirituality” because it provided me with profound insights and messages.