日本人専門英語レッスン

日本人がぶち当たる壁を全て解決

①「読み書き」➡「聞く話す」スキルを強化

②日本人によくある間違いをスムーズに解消

13年ほどArai Academy of Japanese Studiesで日本語を学んでいるネイティブ英語教師歴9年のマット先生は自身の日本語学習体験から、同様に日本人が英語を学ぶ過程や大変さも理解できます。

Arai Methodでは知識を個々が使える場面に合わせ、使えるようになるまでトレーニングし、自信を持って話せるようになります。

日本語の影響による誤用や英語らしい表現の使い方など、日本人が抑えるべき点をスムーズに解消できます。

 ロンドン出身、ロンドン在住の英語教師です。大学で言語の勉強をした後、２０１５年から英語が教えられる仕事を始めました。それから9年間オンラインで日本人などの生徒に英語を教えています。言語と文化に興味があるので、自分の国の言語や文化を教えるのが喜びです。Originally from South-East London, I’m a tutor of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) now living in West London.  I studied languages at university and trained as an English teacher because I love sharing both the language and culture of my home country, in addition to learning about and appreciating the differences between the many other languages and cultures, especially Japanese.

何年も日本語を勉強しているので、日本人が英語を勉強するときの大変さがよくわかります。皆さんが効率よく学べるポイントを押さえて、しっかりとサポートします。I have studied Japanese for many years with Arai-sensei so I am very familiar with how English and Japanese differ, and understand many of the difficulties Japanese people encounter when they are learning English.

こちらのブログからマットさんが2012年からずっと日本語を学び続けられるコツをご覧ください。

My Cross-cultural Experiences in Canada - 1 year Study Abroad

All modern language university students in the UK must spend a year abroad in a country where the language is spoken, either studying, teaching or working.  I was studying French and Ancient Greek at the University of London, so I had the choice of going to France, Belgium, Switzerland, certain parts of Africa or certain parts of Canada for my year abroad.  Many of my friends chose to go to France because it was easy to travel home for weekends and holidays.  I actually decided to choose the place the furthest from home because I wanted a full French immersion experience, and I didn’t want to be tempted to come home whenever I felt like it.

This took place between the year 2000 and 2001, when we didn’t have smartphones or fast internet access at home.  I asked the teaching staff at my university what to expect in Canada and they simply told me that French speakers there had a different accent.  I travelled alone and was able to arrive without any problems and apply for my visa at the immigration office at the aeroport.  Then the challenges began!

I took a taxi from the aeroport to the university, which was a journey of about 40 minutes.  The taxi driver was very friendly and seemed to want to share lots of information about the local area, which buses I should take when visiting the city centre and where to find the local shopping centre, but he spoke so quickly and with such a strong local accent that I hardly understood much of what he said.

When I arrived at the university I found that it was huge - almost like its own city.  My university in London had only 4,000 students; this university had 40,000 students; it was a real surprise.  I found my accommodation and, after almost 2 days’ travelling, I was able to settle in.  It turned out that the university accommodation was mainly used by international students, many of whom spoke French as their second language (like me) and English as their third; students from the area generally commuted to the university by car, rather than live on site.  When other international students realised I was an English speaker, they often switched to speaking English because they wanted to practise speaking in one of their other languages.  This meant that I didn’t really have the full immersion experience that I had anticipated in the environment in which I was living.

When classes began, things became a little easier for some aspects and more difficult for others.  I was now mixing and interacting with natives but, although I had studied French for over 10 years and considered myself a confident speaker, I found it very difficult to understand and to be understood.  Although we were speaking a common language, the accent, different vocabulary and different idioms meant that there were often problems in communication.  Our culture was very different too - I’m sure many people consider that the British and Canadians are similar but, in fact, in this particular part of Canada (Quebec City) I felt that we couldn’t be more different.  History, religion and different holidays all played a part in this.

My own English accent also became a problem.  Both when speaking with students at the university and also with staff in restaurants and cafes, when people realised I was British they wanted to hear my English accent and wanted the opportunity to speak English with me.  I received comments about how nice my accent was but this actually frustrated me because I felt that I was missing out on chances to communicate in the language I was studying.  It also came across to me that my French language skills were so poor that others were switching to speaking English with me to overcome any miscommunication.

I realised I needed to make a real effort to improve my communication skills in order to benefit from my year abroad so I took the following approach:

• I made opportunities to interact with native speakers; for example, joining groups and attending activities and parties at the university and in the city
• When interacting, I noticed what was working well and what wasn’t working well; I also listened for key words and phrases that were different to those I had learnt in my own studies and I made an effort to remember and use these in future interactions
• I reviewed what I had studied at school and at university and tried very hard to pinpoint what was “Standard French” and what was “Quebec French” so that I could adapt my way of speaking to be the standard for the area I was living in; I also tried to copy the accent (but only softly, so that no-one would think I was making fun of them) by listening to presenters on the TV and radio
• I asked other international students at the university how they had adapted their approach to the language so that I could get different viewpoints

Lastly, I tried not to be disheartened when an interaction failed.  There were times when I tried extremely hard but didn’t achieve any success.  Instead, I used what I had learnt to improve my next interactions.

Towards the end of my stay in Canada, one of my French Canadian classmates said to me, “You speak like us now and the only thing that gives you away is your clothes”.  I think she meant that my mostly European clothes stuck out more than my speaking skills. I took this as a great compliment.