My youngest daughter, A, came into my room and declared that she had become above me in English skill. It was kind of flinging down the challenge to me. I said to her, "Very funny! Impossible!" She replied, "Shall we take the TOEIC test together?" "Alright!" I accepted her proposal.
By the way, it was when she was 12 years old that she went overseas and spent a week in an English-language environment for the first time. I took her to Whistler B.C., in Canada.
She likes animals and was amazed to see how gentle dogs were in Whistler. We met lots of dogs when we took a walk in the village. She was eager to touch them and take pictures of them, but she couldn't speak any word in English, so I taught her the following sentence; "May I take a picture of your dog?" She practiced pronouncing this sentence again and again, and after that she went out.
She started trying to speak to native speakers who were walking their dogs while I was watching her at a distance. I couldn't listen to their conversation, but I saw her take a picture of the dog. It looked like she could make herself understood in English. Finally, she collected more than 20 pictures and this incident must have made her motivated to learn English.
(Vocabulary)
spend time in English-language environment 英語環境で時を過ごす
at a distance 離れて
三女の杏里が部屋に入ってきて言った。お父さんの英語力を抜いたと。そんなことはあり得ない、不可能だと答えたところ、一緒にＴＯＥＩＣを受けろと言う。二つ返事でＯＫした。
杏里が初めて海外へ行ったのは１２歳の時。当時彼女は英語を全く使えなかった。スキーリゾートとして有名なカナダのウィスラーへ行ったのだが、動物好きの彼女は散歩中の犬たちがしつけをキチンとされていることに驚き、どうしても触ったり写真を撮りたいという。それで、「あなたの犬の写真を撮っても良いですか？」という英文を丸覚えさせて外に出した。
果たして杏里は出会う散歩中の人に次々と声をかけ、遠くから観察しているとなんとか会話をしているように見えた。最終的に２０頭以上の犬の写真を撮った。この出来事が彼女の英語の習得に対する動機付けになったことは間違いない。
Comments