Meet Nami

A morning Intensive student who lives and works in Hawaii, Nami has been in Ty's Green Class for 8 weeks. She practices writing in English every day, and today she wanted to share her writing on this blog.

I came here with a J-1 visa and my English has been improving very slowly this first year.  Because I had no confidence with my English, I only felt comfortable surrounded by Japanese rather with non-Japanese speakers. But then I realized something was lacking in my Hawaiian life, and I had missed a lot of chances out there.

One day I was browsing a Japanese free paper when I learned about this school.  They had reasonable prices and a discount coupon on enrollment fee. I decided immediately to go to this school.

Now I’m studying with two other students from Italy and Spain.  They’re very active and talkative.  At first I struggled with this, “Why can’t I say my opinion…?  Why is my English coming out so slow…?”  I’ve since realized I don’t have time to worry about mistakes and my strange accent. To be international, I have to break my habits. If I hadn’t come to this school, I would never have experienced that and I couldn’t have gone through he struggle without my teachers and staff’s help.

Now I’m enjoying learning English and exchanging our cultures. While we’re having conversation, I have to be extra careful with my Japanese accent, otherwise people won’t understand me at all.

My favorite part of this class is that teacher corrects my pronunciation and intonation all the time, so we can communicate even in the mainland.

Now I often hang out with my classmates and local friends, and I appreciate the school’s support.