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The moment I feel I will be able to use English Today, I'm going to talk about my experiences. I've been here 8 months. During those 8 months, sometimes I felt it's been a long time since I came over here and also I felt it's been a short time. I still remember the first day in Boise. The moment I reached Boise Air Port, I felt anxious because there was no Japanese instruction, no Japanese people and I had to do everything in English. I expected that, but I was still hoping to find some signs in Japanese at airport because I could not speak in English at all. My first face-to-face conversation was with my advisor. The next day I came over here, I went to her office to talk about my classes. The conversation was like this, "My name is Megumi. I would like you advice about my classes." She started, "Hi. Megumi. Nice to see you. When did you come to Boise? How long did it take to come? ......." Then, "You should take this class and this and also you'd better take this class, too. Ok?" And I nodded, "Ok." I just followed her advice. I should have said that I have to graduate as soon as possible because I don't have enough money to spend 4 or 5 years in the US. Since then, my English has improved, probably, but I still like to become more proficient. First of all, I had to build my listening skill. Japanese pronunciation is totally different from English. In Japanese, there is no difference of "th" and "s", "r" and "l", and "b" and "v". One day I went to an ice cream shop. I ordered like this; "Can I get a vanilla ice cream?" the clerk gave me banana ice cream. The banana ice cream was actually pretty good, though. But can you imagine how sad I was? I could not even get a vanilla ice cream because of my pronunciation. Since then, I'm trying to pay much more attentions to my pronunciation. Some people correct my pronunciation, the other people just laugh at me. Whenever this happens, I realize my pronunciation is wrong. I want to be able to do 2 things in English: telling a lie in English and making people believe it, and joking in English and making people laugh. In order to tell a lie, I think my English must be fluent. And In order to joke in English, I need to know American sense of humor, which is probably based on cultural aspects. Fluentness and knowledge of cultural aspects may be necessary to use English. Of course, it's my opinion. Honestly speaking, I've never felt I was able to use English, yet. Just because it's not difficult living in the US, I don't think that means I'm able to use English. Some day, I may understand the cultural aspects and be able to speak in English fluently, and then I may feel I'm able to use English. I know my English is still kind weird. But I can't help feeling that
I will have more possibilities in my new life in the United States. Now
my flower of English is to be blooming.
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