LETTER FROM HAPPY ENGLISH SCHOOL　　　　July 17th,2021

Hello. How are you？ It is getting hotter and hotter. I hear the temperatures in some parts of the northern America hit nearly 50 degrees Celsius. I hope it is not going to get that hot in Osaka, but we definitely need to prepare for the sizzling hot weather this summer by getting cooling items such as electric personal fans and cooling pads and gels.

How is your English study coming along? In order to express yourself and describe situations in English, you should do translation exercises as well as read a lot. I really would like you to talk about personal issues and also social issues well now that you study English. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you do as many translation drills covering topics from different genres as possible. You can learn appropriate words and phrases through this practice and improve not only writing skills but also speaking skills to become a good English communicator.

I watched the program “Justice with Michael Sandel”, where Todai university students from Japan, Harvard students from the US and Seika university(Tsinghua University) from China, those elite students, talked online about current issues to try to find out what is right to do. Among the topics were mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus and incentives to get vaccinated such as $1million lotteries, crispy doughnuts and locally brewed beer. Mr. Sandel also raised such issues as the high rate of affluent families’ children passing entrance exams of top schools and low-paid essential workers being exposed to risks of getting the virus.

All of the six Chinese students and six American students discussed the topics in English, but five in the six Japanese students talked in Japanese. It is regrettable that all of the Japanese top university students in the program that must have studied English hard did not voice their opinions in English when the moderator and other students from China and the US used English in the discussion.

The discussion I saw on TV made me determined to try to make students express themselves in any situations in English for their language practice. Speaking practice is only possible by speaking. I have realized that I need to encourage students more to speak the language in any way. Practice makes perfect.

暑い夏がやってきた。アメリカ北部で50度近い熱波だそうですが、大阪もそうなるのではないかと危惧します。英語の学習を習慣づけてしていますか。ドラゴン桜が言うように毎日、学ぶことが大切。たとえ短時間でも少しでも毎日英語に触れるように習慣づけて学習しましょう。

ハーバード大学教授のマイケル・サンデルの白熱教室で、それぞれ6人の東大の学生、アメリカ・ハーバードの学生、中国・清華大学の学生がいろいろな社会問題についてオンラインで話していました。マイケル・サンデルの提議した問題に他の学生は英語で答えている中、日本のトップの東大の6人中１人だけが英語で応答していました。東大生は受験で英語のレベルが高いはずなのにそれを見て残念でした。

それを鑑みて、当スクールではとにかく何でも英語で表現するように、口から様々なことが英語でついて出るように練習してもらうよう、さらに精進する決意を固くしました。生徒はひたすら暗記を余儀なくされていますが、結局思うようなことが言えていないジレンマがあります。とにかく英語で何でも表現しなければ、英語の使い手になるわけではなく、どんなことでも英語で表現する姿勢を本当に、生徒の中に培っていきたいと思います。それに欠かせないのは、日本語から英語の訳練習を積み、それを言えるよう練習することです。Practice makes perfect.