Learning foreign languages: endless task

Every time I read a long article in the New York Times or a book for adults, there are at least one or two words I need to check in a dictionary. I feel studying English is an endless task.

As a speaker of English as a second language, I have studied it a lot. I did my first Master’s in Journalism in the U.S. as a Fulbright Scholar, and second Master’s in Environmental Policy and Regulation in the UK.

I got TOEFL and GRE scores needed for admission and the perfect score of the Test of Written English (TWE) which used to be part of TOEFL. My TOEIC score was 980/990; the listening part was perfect, but the reading part had one mistake that I remember making carelessly. TOEIC was so uninteresting that I prepared only for a few days. Given that, I think I did well and don’t want to take it again because it is so unexciting.

I use English in day-to-day work. Whether it is email, reading and writing reports or meetings, all business is conducted in English. My boss is an expert in our field with a Ph.D. and an MBA, and speaks fairly fast.

My first language is Japanese. Since I was a student, English has been my most favorite subject. Even today after coming home I study English every day on general issues. I’ve listened to almost all major speeches on the U.S. presidential election and subsequent developments.

I take an English lesson for half an hour by English native speaker teacher in an online training program each day, discussing many topics. I ask nuances of new words I encountered during the day. A good teacher tells me much more than what’s written in a dictionary. He encourages me to make a sentence by using the new words. That’s really a good exercise.

The other day, the word was “epitomize” – if you epitomize something, you’re a perfect example of that thing. I said “Japan epitomizes good customer service.”

He said “well done!” Just like that, I enjoy learning English, but this is never going to be perfect and will continue forever.