趣味で英語は話せない : Don't Learn English Just As A Hobby

趣味で英語を勉強する日本人

In Japan, there are many people who study (not learn) English very hard. They're not even business people and travel lovers. When we ask them the reasons for learning English, they often answer "Well, because it's fun. It's a kind of hobby." A hobby? Why is English so popular language for Japanese people to learn? Probably it's because of social pressure to speak English and advertisings everywhere.

趣味の勉強では英語は話せない

Communicating in another language with people from another culture is fun for sure, so I understand why people want to learn a new language as a hobby. In fact, I also learn some other languages as my hobby. So it's probably "ok" to start learning English as a hobby for Japanese people because they'll like it as they enjoy it very much. However, in my opinion, they'll never get fluency in English on that way, as long as they learn it just as a hobby.

Q. それじゃどうしたら良いの？

What would be the solution for Japanese people to get fluency in English? Let's think about it. Every single person has her/his own answer. For me, the best way I found is like this as follows.

A. 学習と同時に「必要なもの」に変える

Rather than studying English just as a hobby, try to make it fundamental for you to use. These are the simple 5 steps I can recommend you to do.

1. Talk to as many people as possible in English and make friends
2. Read something you're interested in in English
3. Learn how to use the words/phrases you didn't know by doing 1 and 2
4. Talk to more people or friends you made in 1
5. Write a diary in English as often as possible (blogging is good to motivate yourself)

What do you think? Well, that's all for today's entry. If there are anything to comment please don't hesitate and say hello to me. Thank you for reading always. See you next time!