About a week has passed since I came here... Classes are starting and already I got roads of homework. The first week has almost ended and week 2 has now starting. Now, I got used to living here and dorm life is also comfortable. I spent only a week here but I already have wonderful impressions; nature, meal, friends, and English. Through all these things I feel I am already excited about myself. Before talking about my opinion, I want to say this is not my first visit to America, also this is not my first time to study abroad which means nothing surprises me. No matter what I am in America and what I study in America. My goal is to improve my English and speak English more fluently. So, let's talk about what have I done so far and what "Americaness" is for me.
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| Beautiful campus!!! |
I am at MFWI which is one of our University's facilities. This is our campus where we study English. To tell the truth, this is not my first time to be here actually. So, I felt nostalgic and I wanted to say 'I'm home!'. I thought same thing as before that MFWI has good environment to learn English. Well, I want to say not only English but also we can learn a lot of different things. But suddenly I noticed, if we do not try harder than before, it does not mean anything. Before coming here, I did not have any ideas when I should do E.O. (as you know E.O. means English Only). As soon as I arrived at MFWI, one of my group members talked to me in English. I was surprised because this was only the first day and we just arrived. She moved me and I decided to speak English in my dorm. Next thing what I did is E.O. between our group members. That was difficult because at first some of my group members were hesitant to speak English. So, I tried to speak English in front of them everyday even if they did not understand me. Now, they try to speak English more than before and I am very happy with that. They said they are now comfortable to speak English with their friends and among us. When I heard that, I was satisfied with that. Now, I am ready to become "Americaness".
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| Heavy snow day!!! |
What is "Americaness" for me? It is not to be like a native speaker. It is not to love American food. It is to know American thoughts. One of my goals is speaking English frequently, but as I said we are in America. This is a great chance to learn about American culture and thoughts. It is not that everyone can do and experience this. If I know many things about events or accidents which happen in the world or about history, I can communicate with and connect with more people. It is one way to get to know each other and know each other's culture. "Americaness" is one important thing for my future.
My first week and impression of MFWI and America are good. Well, I can say so far so good. I don't know what will happen in the future. Will I love America more than before or not...? Anyways, everything is up to me. Shakespeare said 'To be or not to be, that is the question'. I can say like this, 'To succeed or not to succeed, that is the question'.
