1 week 10/27

Question1
      I feel time has gone by faster this week, because it was the first week I took new classes this term. Honestly, I was excited but a little nervous to take the  new classes. It remainded me of the first day I came to the program. However, on the first day, in some classes, It was fun to introduce myself to the classmates through the activities and they drived me to learn English more. Before coming here, I used to research my theme alone in the university. Although there were some students in the same research room, I did not learn something together nor took the same classes with them. So, now, at the program, I feel the classmates seemingly have the same goal to study such as improving English or going to university in the U.S.. So, I am learning the way learning together or helping to learn each other. And this is one of the things I learned and recognized again at the classes in the 1st week.

Question 2
     Outside of the classes, I went to the restaurant with some freinds this Thursday. I met them at the coffee hour which is good oppotunity to talk with people outside the program, and they have different background. For example, among the freinds, one girl who is from Hawaii is studying Korean and Japanese as well as business. Also, another girl who is from Korea is studying Police Administration as an exchange student now and studied Japanese before. So, everyone is studying different kinds of things. Also they always try to learn new things. For example, they often try to speak the language studying and help each other to study. So, such a strong motivation inspired me to learn new things, especially their language and culture. In addition, they taught me that learning their language is good opportunity to know each other. Although I am learning English now, I am really interested in other language and cultures. Thus, this is the thing I learned this week.

Question3
     I think that  language learning and other types of learning has different points in several ways. For example, if you study English and math, you will have to learn some rules to master them in the both subjects. However, as for English, you will probably learn other than rules in dialogue. You need some freinds or teachers to talk to improve English more. This is why many people like going to English conversation school in some countries. For example, in Japan, despite of the high cost, the private English school has been very popular among old and young people. Moreover, it is the reasons why many people try to go abroad to study language, though some people go abroad to study specific area such as politics or science. Thus, I think that language learning is very fun but very hard and has some different points from other types of learning.

Question4
     There are several kinds of strategies such as TOEFL, TOEIC and IELT. And there are some reasons why we need to learn the strategies. First, strategies make us solve questions effectively. In the case of  TOEFL test, we need to learn some skills to solve many questions in short time. For example, in reading section, teachers usually instruct us to solve one question in less than one minute. Of course, it is very hard but necessary to get higher scores.So, we need  some skills to achieve it. In addition, the strategies help us study something basically. For instance, in the grammar section, I think that understanding the part of speech is really helpful to solve the questions,because it helps us find what the wrong sentence or phrases are in the questions. Thus, strategies are necessary and helpful to learn something.