Finally!!!! My ESL, class for studying English, was done today!!! I had been studying for 9 months. I got my certification of ESL class and 100% attendance. 6 month ago, my first term classmates got their certification, but I couldn’t get because I still left two terms. I had really wanted to get my certification, and I thought I would feel happiness and satisfaction. However, today I was full of sadness and missing of leaving my ESL class more than any happiness or achievement. So, in this time, I want to review my ESL class and talk about my next step.

Last September 22nd, I arrived in Portland, and next week I took class test, which teachers use to decide what class we will take. I entered level 3 class, and I got many friends. I thought it would be full of joy, and actually first class was kind a easy for me and I could feel relax during class. However after couple weeks later, I faced first challenge. Because there were many Japanese students in my school, I often used Japanese with my classmates. I tried to use English to my Japanese friends, but I felt a little bit ashamed. Also, sometimes they answered my questions in Japanese even I asked in English. That made me uncomfortable to use English. However, the more we spent time in PIA, the more we used English. Therefore, the end of fall term, I didn’t feel any fear to use English to Japanese people as well as other country people.

Winter term was really small term. I had only one classmate in my writing class. First time, I was really nervous about taking writing class because only two students in there, and my classmate was higher level than me. I did have many questions since my class was become higher than fall term, but I didn’t want to ask questions because I have bunch of questions which my classmate had already known. However, I realized that I had many chance to ask questions more than other class students. After the time, I didn’t feel any fear of asking questions. Also, the amount of homework was getting huger, so I often stayed up all night to finish my homework. Winter term was extremely tough for me physically. On the other hand, I could feel relax to do homework at the end of winter term.

Finally, in spring term, that was also small class but bigger than spring term, and I was level 5 student. This term was last term for me, that is why I always feel nervous about whether my English was getting or not. Actually, I didn’t feel any improvement of my English, and I feel my English was much much worse than my classmates. Everything would be last for me, so I always tired to get information as much as I could. Therefore, this term was tough for my mental. However, before learning my class, I had to take test, which was same as the test I took 9 months ago. And guess what? My point was almost 30 pints higher than first one. The result made me amazingly happy because finally I could feel achievement of my English.

All of tome in ESL class was really precious for me. And I appreciate everything PIA did for me. From next week, I will take service learning class, and I will volunteer in workplaces in which I really wanted to work. I lost my ESL class and I will lose my friends who will go back country, but I still have time to learn English, so I will try to get all of chances I can get to improve my English. Anyway, my long long class was done today, and new life will be started from now.