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Happy Graduation!

Names of the graduates from my college were announced yesterday. I found my name on the list. I made it! I'm very happy with it and I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported and helped my college life. Especially, I should say thank you to my husband, who has paid my tuition for me for these two years and, my children and my aunt who have helped me every day. Without their help, I could not have reached here. The graduation ceremoney will be held on March 23rd. at Yamate. We'll wear a cap and gown for the ceremony. I'm looking forward to it.

A set of headphones for 36,000Yen

Do you think it abnormal to pay 36,000Yen for a set of headphones ?
For me, absolutely no! This is because that the sound heard from it is quite different from the cheaper ones. As I posted before, I have been training my ear for the purpose of improving my auditory ability. As a by-product of the training, I can enjoy music, especially sound itself, much better than ever. Therefore I wanted to obtain more qualified headphones. Then, I visited DENCHOKEN Institute in Kikuna, Yokohama yesterday and bought one for 36,000Yen without hesitation.

I'm writing this post listening to songs of Shogo Hamada with the headphones. Sound is incredible! His voice is so natural and clear as if he were singing beside me. Usually, when I go to his concert, he is really far away from me, but now, he is with me. I'm soooooooooooo happy!

You are not too late to study

I'm very sad because I failed in EIKEN again.

I wish I could pass it during my college life. I have to reorganize my study plan in order to make sure to pass it next time. The very reason I failed this time was lack of concentration. In the middle of the test, I felt fatigue and could not concentrate reading passages. Many of the examinees say the test was not difficult, so the border line would be higher than last time. However, one thing I was pleased with was that speaker's voices were clearer than ever. I 'm sure that listening comprehension skill is getting better. This must be the effect of my ear training. Better listening skill will　surely lead me to success! I will never give up.

Go for it!

Blogging is Fun!

Last October, at the beginning of the course, I was very nervous about blogging because I had never tried it before. However, thanks to Papa Globetrotter's guide, I have reached here, the last blog out of class.

I have kept writing mainly about my efforts on my studying English because the name of the blog, "go for it!", was selected to cheer me up in studying English.

Posting on my blog, I was able to keep my motivation to try various things, such as EIKEN and TOEIC. Furthermore, by exchanging comments, I was able to get familiar to some of the classmates. So, blogging was so useful making friends.

In addition, as a last project, Yuki, Tomoko and I made our own web page by ourselves. It was unbelievable for me to create a web page, but we made it!

Looking back on my blog, my favorite blog is the movie review on IMDB com. I was so excited when my first review was uploaded on their site. Of course, each blog has its meaning and every time when posting a blog, I tried to write honestly.

Most importantly, blogging in English was really useful to improve my writing skill. I really enjoyed blogging, visiting other girls' blogs and leaving my comments on them.

I want to keep this blog for a future improvement in my English proficiency. I wish I will be able to report my success in EIKEN and TOEIC in the near future.

Thank you Papa Globetrotter, and classmates for everything you've shared with me in the class. This class is one of the most memorable ones I' ve ever taken. Good luck to you!

Ear Training Report

4 days have passed since I started my ear training using "Listening Dr. " I think this material is really useful to train ears to improve listening skill. I was surprized voices from an AFN program were so clear than ever. I was able to understand most of the stories spoken by a fast voice. However, I'm not sure if the improvement would last forever. More training is necessary to keep my listening skill better. Only 10 days will be left until the next EIKEN, so I should study harder to pass iｔ. How I wish I could pass it!!!

Listening Dr.

Yesterday, I obtained a special material for ear training to brush up my English listening skill. It is called "Listening Dr." and was developed by Mr. Denda,who used to be a musician and thought Japanese people were necessary to train their ears in order to catch correct sounds of English as well as music. He had worried about Japanese players' poor playing of Western classical music and researched the reason for years. Finally, he found Japanese people have a problem to catch correct sounds of music due to interference of spoken Japanese which frequency level is much lower than any other languages. Moreover, he noticed to train musician's ear was the same process to train English learner's ear. The material contains several training CDs and a headphone set. We can listen to the specially processed sounds of music and English through the headphones. We feel as if the sounds massage the ear moving right and left alternately. Mr. Denda says the material is useful not only for training the ear but also stimulating the brain giving the energy of high frequency sounds of music. Actually, after listening to one of the training CD, I felt much better. I will record my improvement of listening skill by checking the result of quizzes and prove how useful this material would be.