My English Learning Journey
2026-01-01
Learning English in Japan
In Japan, many people study English for university entrance exams, so there are plenty of study materials available at low prices. In that sense, English is relatively easy to learn in Japan.
How I Started Learning English
I have always felt weak in English.
I began studying English in middle school. At that time, there was no English education in elementary school, and I didn’t attend any English cram schools. During middle and high school, I struggled with English and my grades were below average.
I didn’t even understand what an “object” was, which made things very difficult. No wonder my English grades were below average.
To this day, I think the term “object” is a bit too specific to English. It would be more appropriate to teach it as the “accusative case,” which is used in many languages including Latin. However, since German uses the same concept with its “fourth case,” I can’t complain too much.
(An object is the word that fills the “~” in “to ” or “” in a sentence. In Japanese grammar terms, “to ” is the indirect object, and “” is the direct object.)
In high school, one of my English exams was entirely written in English, including the questions. I couldn’t understand a single question, and I ended up with a very poor score. However, exams are meant to test what you’ve learned in class and whether you can apply it. So I went to my teacher with a friend and asked if the next test could be written in Japanese. From the following exam, the questions were written in Japanese, and my scores improved somewhat. Still, my grades remained around average or slightly below.
Since I chose a science major for university, my English didn’t improve much until I was around 20 years old.
The Turning Point (University Years)
Right after entering university, I realized that the science major was not for me and didn’t suit my personality. So I decided to switch to the humanities (a so-called “major change”). I was able to change my course starting in my third year.
The professor I was assigned to teach linguistics was an exceptional language expert. He graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and was fluent in many languages, including English, French, German, and Indonesian.
I was fortunate enough to receive one-on-one seminar guidance from him for two years.
Before that, I had already been working on books like Eibun Hyōjun Mondai Seikō, so I had some reading ability. In the seminar, the professor gave me several academic papers and asked me to choose one to read. All of them were written in English. He also recommended English books for me to read.
I realized how little I could read in English. The professor patiently taught me how to read academic papers, and after two years, I finally became able to read them.
Further Progress (Graduate School)
The professor I studied with retired the year I graduated, so I went to a different university for graduate school.
Although I initially intended to study linguistics, I ended up studying cultural anthropology. Even there, I was strictly guided on how to read English texts.
We had a seminar where we carefully read The Perception of Environment by Tim Ingold, a well-known anthropologist. It was almost a one-on-one seminar, and the professor told us we were reading “hyper-level” English.
However, I still struggled with English. While everyone else wrote their master’s thesis summaries in English, I wrote mine in Traditional Chinese and submitted it. I asked a Taiwanese friend to proofread it.
Going Forward
Since most of my English learning was based on reading, I still don’t speak very well. Using what I learned in university and graduate school, I eventually passed the Eiken Pre-1 exam after entering the workforce.
Around that time, my supervisor introduced me to Shikō Kunren no Ba toshite no Eibun Kaishaku, and I also reread Master English Grammar, which I used in high school. In the future, I hope to pass the Eiken Grade 1 exam. My biggest challenge is expanding my vocabulary.
Books I Recommend
Shikō Kunren no Ba toshite no Eibun Kaishaku
(This is actually a three-volume series.)
