Concert in Osaka

Last Thursday, I went to Osaka with my mother to go to concert. The concert was held at Kyocera Dome. The dome was really huge and it can accommodate about 50000 people. The tour has started since last April and the performance times are 29 times, and Kyocera Dome was the final place. The performance which held in Kyocera Dome had four days and we went the second day. All of fans had red stick light and the view of them was really beautiful. I was touched the view. It was the third for me to go to Tohoshinki's concert but, that performance was the best.

[106 words]

Essays 1-03a: Personal Language Learning Stories & Plans

I was born nineteen years ago, and I had started learning English sixteen years ago at K school. At first, I only remembered alphabet and its pronunciation. I liked pronunciation and I could write own name in English at that time. I also learned English in kindergarten. We learned vocabulary and simple conversation like “My name is ~.” Then, when I entered elementary school, there were also English classes. There was only once a week, though, we learned from a native English speaker. I started learning English conversation when I was ten years old. I learned only English grammar in K school, so I couldn’t speak English till then. And my teacher told my English pronunciation is not good like “r” and “l.” I practiced tongue twister everyday. My teacher also said to me to take the exams. I took fifth grade English test certification when I was ten years old. I took third grade English test certification till I graduated elementary school. And I quit K school.

When I entered junior high school, there were many students who are good at English, so I motivated and I thought I must try hard to study English. Then I took pre-second grade English test certification when I was thirteen years old. English became my favorite subject. When I was third grade, I started interested in K-POP, so I studied Korean little. I could write Korean alphabet.

After a year, I entered high school. English was my favorite subject in high school, too. I took the TOEIC twice when I was third grade. I also took second grade English test certification.

And now, I’m English department student. We are taking English classes every day and we have a lot of English homework. We always do speaking, reading, listening, and writing homework. I feel it is hard sometime though, I think they are making my English skill better. Actually, the score of TOEIC when I took first year grew about 200 points compare with a year ago. TOEFL also grew 60 points in one year. I also learned Spanish in the first year. We became able to so self-introduction. My Korean skill also grew. I can simple conversation and I understand simple Korean, and I can read, too. I never study Korean grammar. I learned from lyric of K-POP and Korean TV programs. I can travel Korea alone now.

I want to go abroad to grow my speaking skill and I want to speak English as fluently as native English speakers in the future. The near future, I want to pre-first grade English test certification and want to grow my TOEIC score over 800 till I graduate university.

[446 words]

BR 1-06: Stories of Dragons (Rawson, 2003)

'"You are strong!" grunted the dragon'(p.13)

This book has three stories about dragons. First, it says how dragons are scar and strong. The first story is about foolish dragons. A man who was a woodcutter named Stan lived with his wife but they had no children. One day a wizard granted his wish. He wished to have many children and it was been true. But there were one hundred children and Stan went to his friend Sam and Sam said a dragon in cave might have treasure. Stan immediately set off to search the dragon and treasure. The dragon found him and Stan knew the dragon was too strong to fight and beat it. Instead, he said "I'm stronger than you" and squeeze a stone but it was an old cheese. The dragon was surprised and took Stan to meet his mother. But his mother didn't trust and said "If you really stronger than my son, I'll give you our treasure. But he won second fight as his clever brain, so the dragons scared Stan, and attempted to kill him when he is asleep. But Stan heard that and made a strategy to trick them. The next morning he appeared and the dragons were astonished because they expected to kill Stan. They terrified and gave their treasure to Stan, and it was enough to feed all the children.

The second story is about a huge worm. Tom caught a big worm instead of a fish when he was fishing. It was getting bigger and bigger. No one could kill the worm even brave knights came from miles and around the worm. Finally Tom went to see a wise woman to take advise, but she said "You must get rid of it" and recommended to ask the village dragon for help. Tom went to see the dragon with wearing like a brave knight. He was surprise because the dragon didn't look scary. Some talking and negotiation later, finally dragon faced the warm. The dragon was vegetarian but he behaved like a carnivorous. Then, worm swan away and never seen again.

The last story is about two dragons. Victor was famous from making good barrels. He always used best quality wood. One day he was looking out the good tree but he fell into a cave where two dragons been. He begged don't eat me and the dragons suggested a bargaining point. It was to wake up them in the spring. There were only glasses, so he only ate them and drank water, so he became thin though he was fat before. Finally the dragons wake up, but Victor was too thin to eat. So they helped him. The villagers invited to a huge feast to thank them.

Reference

Rawson, Christopher. (2003). Stories of Dragons.

London, England: Usborne Publishing

[467 words]

BR1-05: Stories of Haunted Houses (Punter,2005)

'"Take him away!" yelled Norm.' (p.16).

There three stories in this book.The first story is about the ghost in the dungeon. The bullies of twins let Max alone a night in the dungeon. A knight ghost floated to Max, but the ghost isn't scary. Max tell him that how to be scary. He know that because twins bullies always scar Max and tell them sadly to the ghost. Then, it was time to go out to see twins. But twins didn't believe Max to spend time in dungeon. Just then the scary ghost appeared to twins and they screamed. The knight ghost helped Max in return. Twins promised they'll never bully Max again. And a king ghost appeared in front of the knight ghost, and the king placed on his shoulder as true knight.

The second story is about the hidden treasure. Once upon a night, a highwayman named Pecry hid the treasure in the inn where Small family is running. There were only few customers and Small losing money. Once a time, Mr. Trix told about the treasure and he said he'll find it. Polly, the daughter of Mr.Small  found all around inn. Finally, she found that but the Pecry ghost appeared in front her. Then, Mr.Trix robbed treasure from behind and ran on his car. Pecry called his ghost horse and chased with Polly. Finally the car jumped into the sea and the treasure was lost forever.

But the inn was famous to meet ghosts and there were many customers.

The last story is about ghost ladies. They were boring because there were nothing to do. Once, the TV staffs came to castle and started to film into the castle. They want to be taken, so they dressed up and ready. But TV staffs couldn't find out them and messed room and it made ladies mess, too. They embarrassed and don't want to be taken, but finally staffs found them.

Reference

Punter Russell. (2005). Stories of Haunted Houses.

London, England: Usborne Publishing

[334 words]

Free-writing: My Language Skills

・Past: 10 years ago( &5 years ago)
Ten years ago, I was nine years old. I has started learning English when I was three years old at Kumon, so I studied the level of junior high school English at that time. But I couldn't speak English because I only learned grammar of English. In addition, I didn't like English and I wanted back home early, so I thought only about how I finished early. I always finished with no understanding. So I always solve questions with intuition, and my English skill was not good.
Five years ago, I was fourteen years old. In that time, I had started learning English conversation. And the teacher let me to take the English proficiency examination, I had Pre-Second grade. I could speak English but it was a little.

・Present: Now
I'm in English department now and I use English everyday because we have a lot of English homework. I think my English ability is getting better and I can make sure that from my grown scores of TOEIC and TOEFL exams. But I'm still not good at English conversation now. My knowledge about English words looks

[195 words]