Hey guys.
So I said I started to learn English seriously in college (I majored in it),
but since my English sucked, it was really hard.
At the entrance ceremony, the welcome speech was given by a senior in English and I couldn't understand.
Why not Japanese...
I almost considered dropping out right there...
And soon after the ceremony, we had a freshman's camp that all the first year students attended.
And the students in my group were mostly kikokushijo (Japanese who had lived overseas), or half-Japanese.
Also many supervising teachers were foreigners and they all enjoyed talking in English.
Whenever they asked me something, I just said "Oh, yeah..." because I couldn't understand anything.
After the camp, my classes began.
And my nightmare began as well.
Especially speaking class. It was hell.
Speaking class is not a class where you just sit and listen to teachers.
It's where you use and speak English.
But I couldn't speak English at all.
In speaking class, we had debates.
Our teacher gave us topics and chose the "for" or "against" sides by janken (rock-paper-scissors).
One of the first topics I did was nuclear weapons.
We did janken and I got "against" and my partner got "for."
And my partner happened to be a kikokushijo who had lived in America.
I was like "I can't lose to a semi-American as a representative of Japan!"
And I lost miserably. It was an unconditional surrender.
I managed to understand what she said and I had things I wanted to say back.
But I couldn't say any of them in English. It was mortifying.
I literally said nothing back to her.
So I went to the library on campus to come up with a plan after school.
My plan was to defeat the kikokushijo in 3 months.
3 months was when our semester and class ended.
So, I first thought about the reason I lost to her.
The cause of my defeat was lack of speaking practice.
I had things I wanted to say back,
but I realized that I wasn't able to say things even kids can say in English.
So I started to brush up on the "knowledge" of English I learned in school, and turn it into a "tool".
By the way, while I was making my plans,
a guy asked to share my table with me.
He looked familiar, and I was sure I had seen him before.
So I talked to him and he was actually a senior who won a national student interpretation contest.
He said his English was also really bad when he entered college.
He was thinking of majoring in science and engineering when he was in high school.
So he related to me and helped me with my plans.
And this is what I did.
Write a simple English sentence with basic grammar and a Japanese translation for it.
The English sentence must be very simple.
Please don't write a complicated sentence with difficult grammar you studied only for exams.
So for example,
"This is a pen" is good enough.
Now, write a few more sentences with the same grammar used in the first sentence.
For example,
This is a pen.
That's not my pen.
That's his pen.
When you look at these sentences, they look so simple that you might find this practice meaningless.
But if I say "Then say it in English, please,"
many people can't even make and say sentences at this level.
We know how the grammar and everything works perfectly in our minds,
but unless you actually take that knowledge and practice using it,
they won't come out of your mouth smoothly.
So I practiced saying English sentences smoothly just by looking at Japanese translations.
But this is NOT memorizing practice.
If you can't say the English sentence smoothly, then look at the answer.
Look at the sentence, and digest it.
Then read it aloud.
Sentences we use for this practice are all simple, so you'll get used to it quickly.
When you get used to it, try to make the sentence longer.
I'll use "This is a pen" as an example.
This is the pen that my friend gave me.
This is the pen that my friend gave me for my birthday last year.
Through this practice, I was able to transform my knowledge into a tool.
And here some tips when you do this practice.
1st one is "Grammar book."
When I wrote an English sentence, I always used this book that my senior senpai recommended.
This is "Grammar in use" by Cambridge University Press.
It's the best grammar book as far as I know.
They are written all in English, so you can learn English grammar in English.
You might be a little discouraged by this. I mean, I was like "There's no way I can understand this book..."
But once I started reading, I got hooked.
It was amazing that even someone like me who hated studying English so much found it interesting.
They explained everything simply and you can see how native English speakers understand English grammar.
It was refreshing for me.
Some language schools abroad use this book, too.
On the left pages they explain grammar, and on the right pages they have exercises.
I used sentences from exercises of this book.
2nd tip is to find someone from English speaking countries.
Having a foreign friend is very motivating and helpful.
I mentioned italki in my last video, but here's another one that's very useful.
HelloTalk is an app for smartphones. You can chat and talk to foreign users for free.
You can look for people who're learning Japanese, so you can teach each other which is very nice.
And what I like about this app is this voice message function.
If you're worried about talking to foreign friends on the phone, you can still use this to practice.
You can take your time and speak at your pace, so this is a great way to do the practice I talked about earlier.
You can also listen to your voice message to practice your pronunciation.
There're dozens of English learning apps,
but this one is pretty useful, especially in the way that it can make learning motivating.
3rd tip is recording your English.
I was using $3 voice recorder I bought at a recycle shop.
But you can just use a voice recorder app on your smart phone these days.
Listening to your English help you correct your pronunciation, accent, intonation, etc.
So, if you want to improve your pronunciation, you should try this.
The last tip is "talking to yourself" which is the title of this series.
My senpai also recommended this, too.
This is quite similar to the practice I talked about earlier,
but you don't need to worry about grammar or the length of the sentence too much.
Just say things we normally say in Japanese in everyday life in English.
For example, "I want to eat beef for dinner" or "It'll be rainy tomorrow."
As you do this, there'll be things you want to know how to say in English.
So I asked my online friends and wrote the phrases down in a memo book.
Also, if you do this alongside the first practice, you'll be able to say longer sentences when you talk to yourself.
These tips definitely helped me improve my speaking.
I started out with "This is a pen",
and became able to say simple things in English my first month,
and became able to say sentences that have more than 8 words in my second month.
I became able to say sentences that are pretty long relatively smoothly.
I was able to say things you say in daily life in English.
I've never used expensive studying materials, private school, or studied abroad.
Even if you're so stupid that you got lowest score on a test in school, as long as you plan out well and practice ,
you can become able to speak fine in a short period of time.
In the end, my plan succeeded at the third debate in my second month.
I lost to her twice after that, but unlike the first time
I exchanged opinions back and forth with her the whole time.
So for those of you who want to improve your speaking, hopefully this video was helpful at some point.
Thank you for watching!