Our Regular Meeting Has begun Again

      Today, I met my friend for the first time in a long time. I really enjoy our talking at the cafe. We decided to start meeting and study English together every Friday just the same way as we did before. For the past three years, she has been inspiring me a lot. It's good to have such a friend who wants to study together continuously. We can keep up our motivation for English study.
     I was happy to see her today. :)

My Effort Was Still Not Enough

      As I mentioned in my yesterday's entry, I took the BLS class for my first time. Moreover, I had never taken a class with Americans before, so I had been worried about my poor English. As I took the class with Americans, I was reminded that I need to improve my English even more than before. I have been trying to seriously improve my English skills since 2009, but I thought that I haven't worked as hard as I should have. :P  In order to work with Americans indeed, I think that I need more than twice the effort to improve my English. I know that learning English is not a miracle, so even if I make a great effort to improve my English, it will not change dramatically in a short period. However, I will move forward on my goal and definitely improve my English anyway. I hope I will enjoy my challenge! :)

My Two Year Blog Anniversary

     Today is the day of two year anniversary of my blog! I have been updating my blog everyday for two years to improve my English skills. :)

    Looking back two years ago, I didn't like writing in English at all and hoped to improve my writing skill by trying my huge challenge, which was continuing my everyday blog at least for a year. I accomplished the goal a year ago and was able to notice that I had improved my English skills significantly by continuing to do so. After accomplishing my goal, I decided to keep doing it and hoped to improve my English skills more and more.

    During the second year of my blogging, many things have changed in my life. I finally finished an upper advanced writing class, which was the last writing class at ESL level, with a good grade. I should give myself credit for it! However, it was not easy for me, and I was unsure if I could keep up with the class. That's why I tried to work harder than anyone else. Writing in English everyday on my blog helped me a lot, and I already got used to writing. Writing essays was much more difficult and complicated than my everyday blogging, but I didn't have to hesitate to write essays at least. I think that was a huge improvement! :) After finishing my writing class in May, I started studying for NCLEX seriously. I ended up passing NCLEX and got a RN license! That was my biggest accomplishment!

     My English improvement has enabled me to accomplish my goals. Because I started learning English as an adult, it is very important for me to study and use English on a daily basis. Otherwise, it would be difficult to retain English and I will definitely forget after a short while. I'll continue my everyday blog for the next year. Hopefully, I will notice my English improvement a year after from now.

Studying Forever

      Today, I went to a Korean restaurant to meet my Korean friend who was one of my classmates at ESL school four years ago. We didn't see each other for long time. She told me that she had stopped taking ESL classes and has been studying English with her Korean friends every day. I told her that it was good for her to continue to study English with her study group. However, I also suggested her to take ESL classes because I believe that it is important to improve writing and reading skills in English to live in the U.S. I think that speaking skill can improve without going to school, but it is almost impossible to improve writing and reading skills if you don't go to school. I told her that she should finish taking the advanced upper writing class at least someday, and her writing skill will enable to do a lot of things and will improve the quality of her life little by little. She agreed with my opinion. She told me that she was scared to take advance class. That's why she stopped taking ESL classes. She told me that most her Korean friends think speaking is more important than English grammar, and they believe that when their speaking skill improves, their grammar knowledge expands without studying. However, she disagrees with her Korean friends and also thinks that studying grammar is very important to improve her English skills. She told me that she will go back to school from next semester. :) However, I don't have a plan to take any ESL class. :P Because I finished taking advanced ESL classes and passed NCLEX, I would like to take some medical class for my future career. I studied almost 3,000 advanced vocabularies in August and September, but recently I have realized that I forgot most of them! I need to study for them again prior to take medical classes! The important thing is not to stop studying.   

Until I Became a Registered Nurse

     As soon as I came back to my home from Japan, I received my Registered Nurse license card! I became a Registered Nurse in the U.S. officially. :) I finally accomplished one of my biggest goals!

     Becoming a RN was not easy for me at all. When I moved to the U.S. five years ago, I didn't think that I would be a nurse in the U.S. Soon after starting going to ESL school in 2009, I decided to be a nurse someday and to dedicate myself to English study. I was struggling to study English everyday because I couldn't understand English at all at that time. However, I didn't give up learning it even though I cried many times after school. I didn't understand what classmates were saying and misunderstood during class. After crying, I decided to watch DVDs as long as possible to improve my listening skill and studied grammar to keep up with my ESL class. Looking back, maybe I wasn't happy at all, but when I noticed my English improvement, I was able to feel that my hard study had been paying off gradually. When I visited Japan four years ago, my friend asked me what I was glad most in the U.S. I told her that when I noticed my English improvement, I felt very happy. She might not have understood exactly what I was going through. However, what I felt was true for me. The right answer for her was maybe, "Shopping makes me happy." or something like that, but noticing my English improvement makes me happy more than anything. Studying English has been everything for me since 2009. The most difficult thing for ESL students is keeping up your motivation to study English, but I always could do my best for my English study because I had a huge goal, which was being a nurse in the U.S. I strongly felt that it's my fate. As I went through in difficult period in my life, I learned many things from my experience. After I got a nursing license, I felt self-confident and am proud of myself now. I may have difficult time in the future, but I know that I will finally overcome it.

     Today, I watched Steve Job's 2005 commencement address again. His speech always inspires me a lot.

Steve Job's 2005 commencement address 

English Grammar

Today, I took the final in-class exam, and I will have a potluck party this week. After taking the final exam, I studied about grammar with my friend for an hour at school. Then, I came back home and took a rest for a while. In the evening, I returned to school to meet my teacher in order to learn about article. I still often make mistakes about article even though I am confident with English grammar mostly. However, he told me that article mistakes are not a big problem, and he advised me that I shouldn't care about it too much. He told me that when he attended a high school graduation ceremony last week, the principal made many article and preposition mistakes in his speech. The principal was from Italy and has been living here for over 20 years now. My teacher noticed his mistakes, but none of the other people cared about that. He told me that I have less problem with grammar and most of my sentences make sense, so I should keep my blogging and writing. He told me, "if you understood article clearly, your grammar knowledge would be equivalent to Ph.D degree." Which means for ESL students, it is impossible to figure out every single rule about article because there are also a ton of exceptions. :( While I was talking with my teacher, some students showed their interests in grammar. Because they have noticed that English grammar is a huge problem for them through our writing class, they are planning on taking an advanced grammar class next semester. I took his grammar class last semester, and my teacher asked me if the class was helpful. Frankly, the most of grammar I learned last semester was something I had already studied before, and the class was boring for me. I'm sorry, but it is true. I sometimes thought that my knowledge of English grammar was partly stronger than my American teacher's, and I corrected his explanation about grammar when he couldn't explain logically. Because American people can uneventfully use English without logically understanding grammar, it is not easy for Americans to figure out every grammar rule. I was planing on taking the advanced grammar class for at least two semesters, but I changed my mind. I didn't want to spend too much time studying what I already know. Instead of that, I have been studying grammar with my friend. However, for most advanced writing class students, I highly recommend to take the grammar class. Because they started learning English from advanced level, they didn't have chance to learn grammar. Advance writing classes do not teach grammar since those student are supposed to know that. Ironically, most students are confused about grammar very often. In contrast, I have less problem with grammar now because I started learning English from the very beginning level, and I had to study grammar in many beginning and intermediate classes. I learned English grammar for three years, but it was worthwhile. By starting from very beginning level, I could learn English grammar fundamentally.     

I Accomplished My 30-day Challenge for My Nursing Study

     I accomplished my 30-day challenges, which were reading Pharmacology textbook and reviewing my study notebook, for 30 days in a row. :)
     The Pharmacology textbook explains about many medicines with colorful illustrations, but I thought it was difficult to memorize only with this textbook because I am unfamiliar with most  medicine names. However, I realized that it was much easier to memorize them by reviewing the medicine which was on PreU NCLEX online quiz. I tried to focus on those medicine when I  was reading the Pharmacology textbook.   
     In addition, I reviewed my study notebook and realized that I forgot partly what I have already studied. However, as I reviewed my notebook, I became familiar with them. I thought I need to continue to review my notebook on a daily basis in order to retain them.
    Because I have only 10 more weeks until my NCLEX, I need to study harder than ever before. I want to many things, but it is difficult to do everything because I have to work on my essay for my writing class. Sometimes, it takes me many hours to finish my assignments. My class will end next week. Then, I want to try my new 30-day challenges regard to NCLEX. I haven't decided what would be for my 30-day challenge, but I will share with you soon.

Studying for NCLEX Has Become My Daily Habit

     I accomplished my 30-day challenge, which was studying for NCLEX everyday for 30 days in a row. It has become my daily habit. The only problem is that I don't spend enough time on study on a daily basis. I study about for 1 to 3 hours for it. When I didn't feel well, I studied only for 10 minutes. :P My friend told me that I should study for seven hours a day. I know she is right, but I think I couldn't do that because I need to work for my English assignment which needs great deals of effort at the same time. I know I should take her words seriously. Anyway, I have 15 more weeks until the day of NCLEX, and I need to keep up with my study.
     I will continue this challenge for the next 30 days as well. In addition, the my next 30-day challenge is that I will read my pharmacology textbook and review my study notebook for 30 days in a row. I bought my pharmacology textbook a few weeks ago, and I tried to read it in my bed before I fall asleep. However, I didn't do it everyday. I also want to review my study notebook everyday. I wrote down what I should memorize on my notebook, but I hardly review my notebook. That's why I forgot what I have written in beginning of my notebook. :P
     Therefore, in the next 30 days, I'd like to study for NCLEX just the way I have studied in the past 30 days, read my pharmacology textbook, and review my notebook. I hope I will accomplish my goals.

Pronunciation Practice

     Today, I took tutoring to practice my pronunciations. My tutor told me that she had noticed that I had been improving my pronunciation skill. :) I still didn't recognize difference between some sounds by listing, such as r and l. However, I have noticed that I pronounced some sounds much more naturally. I took pronunciation class for two semesters long time ago, but it was difficult to recognize whether or not I pronounced words correctly by checking with non-native peers in class. Now I practice pronunciations at home, and my tutor checks my pronunciation at school. I always try to pronounce correctly by checking pronunciation symbols. Regardless, I still make pronunciation errors and also do not recognize until my tutor point it out.
     I used to feel bored by studying and practicing pronunciation, but now I enjoy them. I hope I will improve my pronunciation skill!


     These are vocabularies I need to work more.
 police ( pəlíːs )
 criminal ( krímənl )
 record ( rɪkˈɔɚd ) as a verb
 record ( rékɚd ) as a noun
 solve ( sάlv )
 flat rate ( flˈæt - réɪt )
 flaw ( flˈɔː )
 flour ( flάʊɚ ) without any pause
 flower ( flάʊɚ ) (with the distinct w (ว) sound in the last syllable AND distinct pause between w from the first syllable and w in the last syllable)

Pronunciation Skill

These day, I have been practicing English pronunciation with my tutor. I have noticed that I pronounced many vocabularies in the wrong ways. :( I have had many communication problems because of my terrible pronunciation so far. I though that correcting my pronunciation would take forever. If I was able to go back into the time when I started learning English, I would have taken a pronunciation class and would have been continuing it till now. I have been pronouncing many vocabularies for four years, and now it is very difficult to correct them. I searched how to improve pronunciation skill on Internet, and I found that someone says, "Pronunciation skill is very important because your wrong pronunciation leads to misinterpretation, and all ESL learners must master it. However, it is not as hard as you think, and it might probably take only three months or so until you master it." I don't think I can improve it in three months, but I will try to improve my pronunciation skill. Today, I learned "f" sound, and my tutor gave me a lot of homework. I hope I will master "f" sound. :)

Don't Hesitate!

Today, I finally finished reading a 200-page book. Yay! I used to think I would never finish reading an English novel since I don't even read a Japanese novel usually. :)  However, I was required to do it because it was a part of my class assignment. I was really nervous and hesitated to read it because I had known that my reading skill was very weak. At first, reading the novel made me stressful, but I have read it for 8 days in a row anyway. As I read it on, I have noticed that I have been reading it faster and faster and that I have started to enjoy reading it. I feel like I accomplished a huge task. By reading an English novel, my self confidence has clearly grown. It has become evident that I can overcome my difficulties if I try and make a great effort for it. Don't hesitate. I can do it! :)

Catch Up Evertything

     I have been reading a 200-page book since six days ago. Now, I am reading on 150 page. I have noticed that I read it faster than before. :) I have read about 25 pages a day for six days in a row. Six days ago, I needed to divide the reading down to three portions because it took many hours to read 25 pages and I became very tired from reading it. However, now I am able to read 25 pages and write down some details on my note for two hours or so. :) I think I am getting used to it.

     That's why I have little spare time now. Since we moved into our new apartment, I have been very busy for my study and haven't had time to organize my belongings. Today, I finally put away my belongings, which had been placed on the floor for two weeks (haha). Now my apartment is organized well. Yay! :)  However, we haven't organize our garage yet. It seems messy huge storage now. Hopefully, we will get started organizing this weekend. I would like to catch up on my study and task in this spring break.

I Will Make a Habit for NCLEX

     Yesterday, my husband and I accomplished our 30-day challenge, which was going to our apartment gym for 30 days in a row. During our challenge, we were moving to our new apartment. We needed to move our belongings into our new apartment, and we had to do a lot of things for the moving. However, we didn't stop going to the gym. We were really tired everyday, but I am glad to accomplish this challenge from the bottom of my heart because I haven't had backaches since I started exercising even though I carried many stuffs for my moving. If I had given up my challenge, I would have strained my back. I've learned from my 30-day challenge that exercising everyday is obviously good for me to maintain my back. Going to our apartment gym has become our daily habit, and we will continue this from now on as well. :)

     I tried another challenge in the past 30 days. The challenge was reading an article out loud everyday, and I accomplished this challenge as well. :)
I have realized that reading and writing are interconnected, and reading is obviously my weakness. Before I started this challenge, I hadn't read books on my own will. I had read books because of homework and preparing for my study group. I was not an avid reader, so I made this challenge and started reading an article everyday. I think it will take time to improve my reading skill since I am still not confident with my reading skill now. When I chose an easy book, I could understand well but felt a little bored to read it. When I chose more difficult book, I read very carefully to understand the contents of the story, and I became tired. I think if I continue this, I will end up being used to it. I should continue this and overcome my difficulty.

     I think 30-day challenges are the best way to establish a good habit for me. :) I'd like to create a new habit for my next 30-day challenge! I'd like to study for NCLEX everyday. Last year, I studied for it everyday, and at the time, studying for nursing was my daily routine. I studied for it even while I was waiting for my friend and at a dentist, and I also studied during my class's break time. However, since I started taking writing classes, I haven't studied for it everyday. I know that I seriously need to study for it now because I am going to take NCLEX in 19 weeks from now. My husband told me that I should stop going to school if I am too busy by doing my homework because my current priority is studying for NCLEX more than English. I know that my knowledge for NCLEX is not far from the acceptance line, and I believe that I can pass it if I study for it as seriously as I did last year. However, I haven't started studying for it seriously this year! That is why I'd like to establish a habit for NCLEX. I think I won't have enough time to study for it because I need to make a great effort for my writing assignments. Sometimes, I do my homework all day long and often feel that it is endless. However, I will study for nursing every day for any length of time for next 30 days!  

         

For 9 Days in a Row

About three weeks ago, I started reading a 200-page novel, which is my homework and I need to finish reading by next week. I read 35 pages for three weeks, but I started over reading the novel today. It's because I was not able to fully understand the contents of the story. I started reading from the first page today, and I drew and wrote down about characters and what happen each chapter. I was able to understand so far, now I am still reading on page 15 though. In order to finish reading it, I need to read 25 pages a day for 9 days in a row. I have to read 10 more pages today... 

My Assignments

     Today, I did peer review at my writing class. I read my classmate's essay and gave some comments to her. She told me the day before yesterday that she hadn't even started writing her essay, but she finally made it by its due date. I was impressed by her work! She told me that she hadn't slept at all last night because of the essay. Haha. It's because the essay was not easy for me either.  Today, I thought reading others' essays was very interesting because we have the same writing topic, but each person writes the essay from different view point. :)
     Then, I went to one facility which is open to students who are taking language classes can be used freely. Sometimes teachers help our self study there. One teacher came into the facility, and I asked her to check my essay. I got some advices from her for my essay. It was my first time to talk to her. Until today, I thought she was pretty strict and very serious teacher because my former classmate had told me about her before. However, she taught me very kindly and praised my hard work for my essay, and I felt she loves educating students very much. I think that it is the most important thing for our life to love your job. I think people who love their job are having enjoyable and happy life. Improving their knowledge and skills for the job stimulates their lives. As a result, they will get more confidence and pride for what they are doing. :)
     Finally, I asked the teacher about my reading study. It's because I took a hour to finish reading the nine-pages story before, and after reading it twice, yet I was not able to understand the contents of the story. Then, I read it very carefully, and I drew pictures and wrote down detail about each characters at the same time. I didn't know whether or not that was a good way to improve my reading skill. The teacher told me that was good because I prefer visual study. I am going to have spring vacation next week and have homework which is reading the 200-page novel. Reading is obviously my weakness, so I need to make a great deal of effort for it.   

I Have Been Making a Great Effort for My Assignment...

Today, I worked on writing my essay all day long, but I haven't finished it yet. :( That's why I was not able to study for NCLEX. When can I start my study for NCLEX? My husband told me that sometimes people need to make a sacrificial decision for their life, and for me, it is time to give up one of them. I know I need to choose studying for NCLEX. :P Anyway, I am tired from working on my essay. I have to continue it tomorrow...

I Find It Difficult to Read Long Stories

I have often heard from teachers that reading and writing are interconnected, and they have been encouraging students to read books for at least 20 minutes everyday in order to improve their writing skill.
That is why recently I have been reading an article out loud everyday on my own will. I have been continuing this for 22 days in a row. Last night, I read a story which is going to be used one of my assignments. The story was nine pages long and had 750 lines. My teacher had told us, "Compared to the previous stories we have learned so far, this story is pretty long." Yes, it was a very long story for me. It took me 45  minutes or so to finish reading it out loud. I know my reading skill is very weak considering my grammar skill, and I should overcome my weakness. After reading the story last night, I was shocked that I was not able to understand the contents of the story, and I just got tired from reading it. :(  If I had fully understood it, I would have enjoyed reading it though.
Today, I read it again, and  at the same time I drew and wrote down characters of the story on paper. In this way, I didn't have to be confused from many characters. I ended up being able to understand the contents of the story. I know I can't do the same thing every time I read stories, but now I need it because it takes time to improve my reading skill. The reason why it is difficult for me to understand stories is that I don't know enough vocabularies and am not familiar with English names. As my tutor had told me before, the key to improve English skill might be memorizing sentences and vocabularies. She had told me, "if I were you, I would memorialize every single sentence in an entire paragraph." The process of memorizing is not fun, but I clearly need to try it.

My Group Study Began

When I finished my tutoring session and was about to coming out the room last week, my former classmate came into the room to take the tutoring. We remembered that we took the same grammar class before, I talked to her about current her class. She told me that she was continuing to take the grammar class. She asked me to study together if our schedule meets. Today was the day we began to study together. Thus, I went to our school facility which is the place students who enrolled the any language class can study freely, to study with her after my class. Recently, she has been learning about count noun and none-count noun. I was not confident with that, she taught me how to distinguish between those. I think our English level is almost same, that is why we were able to study not far away from our knowledge, and that was very comfortable to study together. We studied for over two hours there, but we never got tired from our study. I said good bye to her, and we promised to study together next week also.  :)

My New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolutions are passing NCLEX and finishing an upper advanced writing class.

I'm still going through the procedure to apply for NCLEX. Last Saturday, I got a letter from Board of Registered Nursing, it read that they request me to submit some additional documentations for an evaluation of my application. I asked my nursing school in Japan to send a copy of my diploma with English translation. I know that evaluation for NCLEX of foreigners who were educated for nursing in their own countries takes many months. I hope my application will be accepted in this year, and I hope I will pass the exam. I studied for NCLEX on my own for eight months in 2012. However, I haven't studied about that since September 2012. :P It's because I had numerous assignments which needed a great deal of attention in my previous class in last semester, so I didn't have time to study for NCLEX. That's why I think I forgot what I have studied for NCLEX. :P I need to start it over again. I need to make a habit to study for nursing everyday.

In addition, I'm going to take an upper advanced writing class in spring semester. This is the last writing class at the ESL level. In order to keep us with the class, I need to improve reading skill as well because writing and reading skills are interconnected. I don't usually read books regardless of the language. Thus, I need to get used to reading books, and learned more vocabularies and expressions from books. This year, I will read one article everyday.

I am still learning many things. I want to build my store of knowledge in this year, and I want to go to work by using my knowledge next year.





   Today's Vocabulary
・ need a great deal of attention : 大変な労力を要する
・ make a habit : 習慣をつける
・ build one's store of knowledge : 知識をつける

   

30-day Challenges

Today, I watched the video, Try Something New for 30 Days by Matt Cutts, and I was inspired by his speech.

A year ago, I made my goal which was continuing writing in English everyday for at least a year. Finally, I was able to achieve my goal and got many benefits from my challenge. I realized through my achievement that continuing something everyday is worthwhile of our life. After watching his speech, I thought that trying something new for 30 days is a good idea! It's because the length of time of 30 days is not too long for anyone! As I mentioned before, I need to exercise on a regular basis because of my back pain. So, I want to try 30-day challenges for my exercise. I haven't decided what I was going to do, but I will share my goal within few days for sure. :)