Roll plays

Role plays are the most difficult assessment in the class. I have done several role plays up to now. I managed to pass all the assessments. What I did was pretending a travel consultant and dealing with customers assuming a variety of situations. Those were kind of interesting assessments. On the other hand, those were challenging activities for me. I have neither enough English skills nor customer service skills. To tell the truth, I was very anxious and nervous from the begining of the roll playing. However, the more I practiced, the better I could perform. Although I am not really satisfied with the role plays, I realized I can get by.

I am supposed to have lots of roll plays in the days ahead. I would like to get them over and complete them more easily than before.

Six months

I have been in New Zealand for six months. I can't believe that such a long time has already passed. Time goes by so fast. I experienced so many things up to now. It was really amazing. I don't regret coming here at all.

The problem is, however, my English, especially speaking skill is really terrible. Why is it so difficult to speak English? I can't still express my feelings in English even though I have kept practicing for a long time. What's worse, I couldn't get a part-time job after all. I guess my English skill is not enough. But I have to get a job sooner or later because I don't have enough money to stay long. I need much more practice to improve my English skill.

To be honest, something have made me depressed these days. I know that is all my fault. I always make myself down. Recently quite a big negative spiral was in my brain and I was struggling with it. I didn't want to do anything. I couldn't have confidence with anything. I was always thinking "I can't do anything!". When everything goes wrong, I am often disappointed with me because I am so weak.  Fortunately, though, it seems that I feel better now. All I have to do from now on is to trust me, to believe me, to like me. I think there would be more tough time ahead, but I must believe I can get over it. Don't be silly. It takes time to improve something. It takes time to change myself. Just go ahead and keep doing. Sometimes take a rest. It would be fine.

Although I still have a plenty of time, I have to value every minute of spending here not to regret.

The wish list

I read one article about the wish list the other day. It recommends to write down 100 wish of yours to disclose what you wish from the bottom of your heart. It also helps to make clear your destination. Imagine what you want to do and what you want to be. You can write down anything you want. It doesn't matter whether it can be done or not. Can you complete 100 wish list? I tried to do that, but I stopped after writing 25 wish. It is really difficult to think about 100 wish. I still keep trying to think about it and write them down. Through this work, however, I can be considering what I want to be in fact seriously. It is really important to stop at some point and think about my future. Possibly I would find out myself I haven't known until now.

Please try it!

Recording (2)

Eleven days have passed since I started to record how many hours I use English. The average time is 4.59 hours a day. I think this number is not bad because I took part in Rotorua Marathon last week and on that day I concentrated on running and I couldn't use English at all. Except for that day, I have been able to spend more than 5 hours a day. The details of how much I spent on each categories are indicated below.

  Listening: 32.83 hours
  Reading: 7.17 hours
  Speaking: 3.00 hours
  Writing: 1.67 hours
  Basic (Vocaburary, Grammer, Pronunciation): 5.83 hours

I spent approximately 65% of total amount on listening. I think this is a good proportion because the most weakness of mine is definitely listening skill. Spending more than 70% might be better. Anyhow, according to the record, I can find out what I am doing indeed and revise how much I should spend after this. This is one of the time-management skill. I will keep doing it for the time being, and I want to spend time more effectively.

Recording

I started to record how many hours I use English everyday because I was thinking how long on earth I should keep practice to achieve my goal in English learning. If I don't have the destination, I will never know how much I should spend time to learn English. Generally speaking, it seems to take at least 3000 hours to reach the level you can use English spontaneously without so much problem. I think I spent approximately 1000 hours up to now including in junior-high, high, and university, so I need to USE more 2000 hours (not only STUDY). If your goal is not to use English spontaneously, you may not need to spend 3000 hours. In my case, however, I want to use English in business situation, and I need at least more 2000 hours as I mentioned above. 2000 hours, it seems absolutely huge number. If I spend only an hour a day, it will take more than five years! On the other hand, if I spend five or six hours a day, I can achieve it within a year. To spend five hours on using English is quite tough, but it is possible for me because I am in New Zealand and I have more opportunities to use English than when I was in Japan. Needless to say, I have to make an opportunity to do it possitively because the situation I don't use English occurs very easily.

I should be careful not to have too much focus on recording because the quality of learning can be more important. 

Rotorua Marathon

On 4th of May, the challenging running race was held in Rotorua. It was almost sunny and an ideal temperature to run. I couldn't accomplish my objective which is to finish within four and a half hours. Except for that, however, I was pretty happy with the result because I broke my record and I never walked at least until crossing the finish line.

I started at 9.30am. I didn't expect that I got the urge to go to toilet as soon as I started. I had to go to early toilet at the 5km point. This was a really miscalculation and I lost roughly a minute.

15km point - I started to feel pain in my legs and I felt like to go to toilet again. I lost a minute as well.

20km point - I started to feel a lack of energy. I usually used to have got some bread or fruits during the race in Japan, but I could get only water and powerade in this race. Anyhow I drunk powerade a lot to keep energy.

30km point - Although my body was still complaining about pain, I managed to catch up with 4hr30min pacer who stuck the red ballons to be seen easily for the runners. To keep thinking mantra seemed to work well.

35km point -  I had my legs strongly hurt and the energy was no longer left. I couldn't find the 4hr30min pacer without even noticing. I tried to think mantra again, but it didn't work.

37km point - I got overtaken by the pacers who stuck the black ballons. I stared at their back and I realized they were running with 4hr45min pace. This was the time of my first marathon two and a half years ago. I really didn't want to lose it, though, my body no longer worked well. The pacers who stuck black ballons moved further and further apart.

39km point - I was feeling merely suffered. I leant forward and got out of breath. I ran with a slight limp. But I never walked. I realized that I couldn't finish within 4.30 any more, but I wanted to break my record 4.45 at least. So I decided to increase my pace again.

40km point - At last I catched 4.45 pacers and overtook them. I managed to run faster because I would be relieved after just 2km running.

Goal - I felt 2km was so long. Was it a really 2km way? I complaint in my heart. Anyway, I finished my first marathon in overseas. The time was 4:40:53. I was glad to be called my name at the moment I crossed the finish line. I was absolutely exhausted and especially I felt strongly pain in my legs. I recieved a bottle of powerade and I drunk it down. I stretched my mustles quickly and I went to Polynesian Spa to be relaxed. All I wanted to do was going to spa. It was awesome.

Actually my body wasn't ready to complete full marathon. I need more practice to finish easier and faster. When I'm running the marathon, I always feel that I don't want to participate in such a suffering race. After going home, however, I am thinking about next race. Accomplishment has special meaning for me, and I can't stop running any more. I hope I will be fitter and stronger than previous myself.