Takashi 1

How fast the time has passed. It already has been three years since I came to the
United States. As you can imagine, everything in the U.S. is different from in Japan. I
guess almost everyone has fear and experiences some obstacles when leaving ones
comfortable place and jumping into an unknown land. In my case, when I left from the
familiar boundary in which I grew up to the new land, I struggled a lot with language and
culture even though the situation got better now. I can still remember that I was afraid
and bewildered in the completely new environment. After one and a half year of my high
school in Japan, I came to the United States. Upon my arriving, I went to the U.S. high
school for three years. While going to the high school in the U.S., I encountered the
different literacy that is taught between two countries. From the valuable experience of
receiving education in two different countries, I struggled but, at the same time,
pioneered new field of literacy.
Of course, every class had aspects that were different from classes in Japan, but
English class was far different from Japanese class in Japan. I was surprised that students
need to read a whole book in the United States because a textbook used for Japanese
classes in Japan is a collection of excerpts of writing works. The excerpts are supposed to
make sense with those small portions used. Even though they don't time to read, students
do not have to read beforehand (a teacher expect students to read beforehand, but even
if they did not read, the worst outcome would be embarrassing in front of a class)
whereas English class in the U.S., it is really, really necessary to prepare for a class by
reading and understanding contents of readings. Teachers read with students during class
and we just take notes of what is written on blackboard. On the midterms and finals, if I

Takashi 2
could understand the notes, I could get high grades for Japanese. It was more about
memorizing than analyzing writings and expressing opinions about them.
However, the situation changed since I came to the U.S. high school. It was
definitely not easy for me to read and understand contents of books, which is much, much
longer than what I read (actually read) in Japan. Since I was a child, I did not have the
habit of reading books. I always quit reading before stories reach their interesting parts
because I could not to stand to read through their settings, which are often unexciting. In
fact, I did not have read that length of readings in Japanese school, so I was avoiding
reading long pieces or whole books. So yes, it was painful for me to sit and read a whole
book written in English, which is not even my first language, but there is no way not to
read and catch up later or remember only what teachers teach. That actually gave me the
chance to read whole books to their endings and discover how interesting and fun when
stories conclude at their endings. Because of the enforcement to read in order to get good
grades on quizzes and discuss in the classes, I could find enjoyment in reading some
books. Even though I would not say that I liked every book I read in English class, I
actually was interested in some books. For example, I read the book Into the Wild in
English II class, which really drew me into the story. At first, the story starts with the
setting and I was bored of reading it as I always do. However, as I read more and more,
the key plots, which did not make sense at first, develop to connect as I read more. The
more I read, the more I want to know and go forward. I was even surprised by myself that
I actively read ahead. This was a really big discovery for me that I could enjoy reading a
long writing.

Takashi 3
Not only reading but also outputs that students produce in classes were different
in Japan and in the United States and I struggled most with them. In a lot of classes,
students in the U.S. have presentations as their assignments. I also had presentations in
my high school in Japan, but they were not graded and I only had them for one
nonacademic class. For the presentations, I searched Wikipedia and some other sources
and summarized using Words. During the presentations, I basically read what I wrote on
Words. How well I do presentations was not a big problem because the focus of Japanese
high school education is about what and how much you know for major subjects like
Japanese, math, biology, etc. rather than how you can express or convince your idea to
other people.
Coming to the United States, I could not follow the same path when I was in
Japan. There are many presentations in major classes and they are considered as a big
part of grades. In addition to not having much experience of presenting, I had to
overcome language. Preparations were relatively easy because I could do my best if I
spend time to create posters, slides, scripts, etc. The hardest part as I mentioned was
presenting what I had prepared to the classes. I can memorize scripts at home, but it is a
totally different story when presenting in front of people. I was not used to deliver
something by myself to people sitting in front of me. Other than anything else, presenting
in English was and still is most difficult thing to do for me. When I stand in front of
people, I forget everything what I memorized. Even though I need to keep talking for a
whole time, I cannot because the language I use is not my native language. Lack of
confidence with my English added much more nervousness and anxiousness to the
pressure of presenting.

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The situation started to change slightly when I went through several presentations.
As I finished more presentations, I started to think that it is just only several minutes to
present. I am just going to present materials I have prepared and explain them with my
prepared scripts. With all effort I spend, I should be confident with what I present. The
change relived my extreme stress to give speech. Each time I could end my presentation
well, I gained confidence in myself that I could do presentations in foreign language.
That made me to go forward and improve myself. I am not a native speaker, so I am still
uncomfortable with speaking in English. However, I can feel much better with my
present presentations than with my first several presentations. I have established skill for
presenting and speaking my opinions in classes.
Each education in two different countries, the United States and Japan, has
strengths and focuses. It will be another topic if I start to talk about which education is
better, so I will not claim which one is better here. However, I could gain skills that will
help me in my future from the experience of learning in the U.S. high school. First, I built
the reading habit. Now, I read more than before and acquire knowledge by interacting
with texts. As a college student or even professional in some field in the future, I will
encounter with more and more situations in which I need to read a long text and absorb
materials or knowledge from it. The other important experience I had is overcoming
presentations. I believe that there will be many situations in the future that I have to
present my findings about something. Therefore, having experience with giving speech to
people was significant because it helps me to get used to it and have little confidence
when I present. I believe that the experience of moving from Japan to the U.S. gave me
the fundamental skills, improved me and leads me to a better future.

Takashi 5