Isn’t language something you only learn when you’re older? Unless you grew up in an English-speaking country as a child, it’s impossible to acquire native-level English skills. But is it possible for someone this old to acquire junior high school level English conversation skills? It seems that the older you get, the more you retain your memory, but your ability to recall things declines. It’s especially difficult to remember people’s names. Sometimes you even forget proper nouns. Is it really possible to learn English in this state?
For six years in my early 60s, I went to Europe once a year. It all started when I went to Spain to celebrate my son’s graduation. It was my first time traveling abroad, so I still remember the excitement I felt. From the following year, my wife and I went to Italy, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and other countries.
This was before the immigration problem in Europe became serious, so I was able to travel peacefully. Of course, since it was a budget tour, I left everything to the tour conductor and didn’t have many opportunities to speak English. I did occasionally have some broken English conversations with hotel staff.
In my late 60s, my health deteriorated and I was no longer able to travel abroad, but my desire to improve my English conversation skills remained.Around this time, an English conversation class became available at the town community center, so I joined without hesitation. The class was started by a retired high school teacher and a junior high school teacher as volunteers. A native ALT also participated, and it was a serious class with an emphasis on pronunciation. It is currently on hold due to COVID-19, but I hope it will start again soon.
This English conversation class had a big impact on me. From then until now, I have been steadily continuing to study English. I make it a routine to spend 10-20 minutes every day in my spare time writing English sentences, reading aloud, and memorizing English words (although I guess you can’t really call it memorization). However, I forget more often than I remember. Well, I intend to continue patiently until I die.
これは以前の記事をgoogle翻訳で英文にしたものであるが、nativeにその真意が本当に伝わるのか？を知りたい為である。
