The story of how I passed the Eiken Pre-1st Grade exam at 45 while juggling housework, childcare, and a job

I passed the Eiken 3rd Grade exam in my third year of junior high school as part of my entrance exam preparation.
Since then, I haven't been particularly good at speaking English,
and even when a moment arose at work where English was necessary,
I would just stammer and string together whatever words came to mind,
quickly running out of breath.

Clients would try to be considerate,
a junior colleague would offer a lifeline with a pained smile,
and I would bear the full weight of my boss's exasperated gaze.

I just wanted to find a hole, crawl into it, and never come out again.

I thought I would be like this until the day I died.

I thought so, anyway.

But then, I encountered it.

A reason to understand English so intense it made me lose my mind.

From there, I dove headfirst into English learning,
and as a result of my innate geeky nature coming into full play,
the story of how I managed to snatch the Eiken Pre-1st Grade certification is right here.

First, the most important thing is to "lose your mind."

The catalyst was the BBC series "SHERLOCK."

While the drama itself was quite a deep rabbit hole,
I literally went crazy for Benedict Cumberbatch, who played the lead.
(I'm much calmer now, though...
It was an affair sanctioned by my husband, and he was even a fan of 'Bene' along with me.)

I conquered every movie he appeared in,
searched for his name to hunt down videos,
and even bought overseas magazines if they featured him.
Eventually, I started thinking, 'I want to hear Bene's voice,'
and I made it a rule not to watch dubbed versions of his works.

That was when this feeling welled up:

Subtitles are such a pain.

That feeling.

If I had time to follow the subtitles with my eyes,
I would rather stare intently at Bene.
I didn't want to miss even a single second.


And so, there was only one solution.

I just had to be able to understand English!

Having found this one single reason to learn,
my tumultuous English learning journey began.
As if I were possessed.

The days when I wasn't in my right mind,
what I did,
and how I climbed my way up to passing the Eiken Pre-1st Grade.

I have written this strictly as a personal account of my experience.

I hope it serves as a reference for those of you who, like my former self, are lost in your English studies.

What is important, of course, is
whether you do it or not.
And,

how well you can stay out of your mind.

As long as you can maintain a state of being out of your mind,
age and time don't matter.
The trigger for losing your mind can be anything.

Wanting to get back at that person who embarrassed you,

wanting to speak directly to an overseas actor at a fan meeting,

or just wanting to change yourself,

having one reason to go crazy is enough.

That said, while this applies to everything,

it's never too late to start, but
nothing begins unless you do it.

If you start and think, 'This isn't for me,'
you can just adjust your course.
I also cherry-picked study methods from many different people.

Even more troublesome is that
there will be moments when you suddenly regain your sanity while doing it.
During my two-year study period, there was a total of about one year
where I stopped studying completely.

It stopped being fun.

When it's not fun, it's hard to learn anything.
That's because you stop thinking of it as your own business.
Time spent doing something reluctantly might be the most wasted time of all.
At times like that, I completely let go of my studies for a while.

Then, about half a year later,
one day, suddenly,
I returned to the stage of English learning.
And from there, I lost my mind with a fresh perspective,
and dashed all the way to passing the Eiken Pre-1st Grade exam.

Be honest and follow your own mental state.

This is also one key point.

The knowledge you have accumulated up to that point
is not lost so easily.
It seems it never goes back to a blank slate.

An English teacher once told me that
memories of language learning
are always stored away in the drawers of your brain.
You might not be able to open those drawers immediately when you need to,
but by continuing the work of going to open them,
you gradually remember and become able to use the language again.

So,
if you feel like "I can't take it anymore!!",
it's okay to stop for a while.
The effort you put in until then will not betray you.

Oh, and
as you can see if you read my personal experience,
it didn't cost much money.
I don't have much of a personal allowance, you see (laughs).

What I did, part 1: Cultivate an English ear at home.

Anyway, get your ears used to English.

This was where I started.

Not just during my commute,
but while cleaning at home,
or while cooking,
I often listened to English podcasts.
Since I get bored easily,
I would pick and choose from multiple programs,
listening to a few minutes of whatever fit my mood.

Here are some that even a beginner could enjoy listening to.

Hey Kudo, I don't understand it even if I listen to it suddenly.

You might think that. I thought so too.

However, I have a weapon called "being insane."

When I just listened to it without really understanding, pretending I did,
the rhythm started to sink in.
This would later prove useful in the Eiken secondary interview.
It makes you sound like you're speaking properly (laughs).

In the end, I was even listening to English while sleeping.
I slept very well (laughs).

Also, what I think is crazy now is that
I looked up the script (lines) for the drama "SHERLOCK" online,
and made it so I could read it on my smartphone anytime.
Sometimes I would read it aloud to myself and grin (total pervert).

It seems that an excessive "love" for something can drive a person crazy.

What I did, part 2: Create a sense of urgency.

While continuing to learn English,
I became hooked on the learning process itself,

"I'm going to test my skills with TOEIC!"

"The Eiken exam is in the direction where that light shines!"

I started thinking things like that.


The idea of whether it was beneficial or not became secondary,

and I resorted to a super masochistic method of forcing myself into a situation where I had to use English even though I was in Japan.

(Of course, I love the benefits, so I lived a life of watching DVDs in the original language.)

To create a sense of urgency where you have to understand English,
you need to surround yourself with English.
How can you do that?

First,

Change your smartphone's display language to English.

I think this had an outstanding effect on improving my English skills.
The words used in various sites and apps
also appeared as essential vocabulary for TOEIC and Eiken.

You can change the language display on an iPhone using the following method:

Then,

deliberately set various systems to display in English.

For example, train station ticket machines.

Even though it's set to Japanese by default,
go out of your way to select "English" and force yourself into a situation where you have to understand it.

Self-checkout registers at the supermarket,
brochures you pick up while traveling,
go out of your way to select English.

That's right.

Force yourself into a situation where it's necessary.

This really trained me well.
After all,

if you don't understand, you end up wasting money.

That's a bit of a big failure.
I'd get anxious thinking about the line forming behind me,
and it became the perfect training for reading and understanding quickly.
The stress was immense, though, so I didn't do it too often.

Furthermore,

if you have the capacity to push yourself even harder,

make tonight's dinner using an English recipe.

This is a huge responsibility.
For example, the moment you don't know what a teaspoon is,
you have to cook without knowing the measurements.
There's a possibility you'll use the wrong ingredients and end up with something outrageous.
If you're not careful, you might not be able to feed your family.


Come on, let's become gamblers! (Please do so at your own risk)

What I did, part 3: Getting a huge boost.

I don't know what gives everyone else a boost, but
for me, it was mainly these three methods.

1. Use a Pomodoro timer to create short, focused study sessions

If you search on YouTube, you'll find all sorts of videos, but
I liked this one that has the ambient noise of a cafe.

A Pomodoro timer is a method of repeating a cycle of:

Focus for 25 minutes no matter what -> When the time is up, stop immediately even if you're in the middle of something and take a 5-minute break -> Focus for 25 minutes -> ...

This pace worked for me, but

if you search for videos, you'll find 45-minute versions too, so
I think some people might find that fits their constitution better.

This 25-minute block was just right for practicing writing English essays within the time limit, and
since I couldn't really find large chunks of time,
deciding to just do one question meant this time allocation fit perfectly.

By the way, this is the one reference book I used for English essay preparation.
It has a lot of practice problems,
it covers almost exactly what's on the actual exam,
and the audio data can also be used for listening practice.
This is what you call great value for money, seriously.

2. Play 'Let's study together' videos by YouTubers and study along with them

When I played this video by Hajime Syacho, whom my kids love,
strangely enough, the work I brought home got done faster.
Remembering that,
I made use of these videos for my English studies as well.

Maybe it's because seeing someone studying in front of you makes you want to do it too, or
maybe it's the reassurance of knowing 'I'm not the only one studying,' but

once I hit play, I just end up studying.

It's not just Hajime Syacho;
'Let's study together' videos were a strong ally for me.

By the way,
my kids absolutely refuse to play this study video on Hajime Syacho's channel (lol).

3. Use drastic measures.

I also did other methods often introduced on English learning blogs.
For example, things like this:

1. Put a cute sticker on the cover every time I finish the vocabulary book once, and go through it dozens of times

2. Research trends using Eiken preparation videos (Zawa-san's videos are super useful)

3. Remember the time I was embarrassed because I couldn't speak English

However, the one that was exceptionally effective for me was number 3.

Recalling almost every embarrassment related to English that I had experienced up until then.

I would summon memories so embarrassing they made my blood run backward,
deliberately reviving feelings of frustration so intense I wanted to lash out,
and I would fire myself up by thinking,
“I never want to feel like that ever again!!!”

It’s not exactly sane behavior, so I can easily work myself into a self-induced rage.

To begin with, why “Pre-1st Grade”?

That is because,

it’s not as difficult as 1st Grade, so it carries a decent amount of prestige,

and it’s not a qualification that just anyone seems to have like 2nd Grade.

It is.

Since it’s at a level where, for example, my son’s high school English teacher holds a Pre-1st Grade certification,
or where holders of the Eiken Pre-1st Grade are exempt from exams at some national universities,
I don’t think it’s easy, by any means.

But I convinced myself that it wasn’t an impossible task.
I hypnotized myself.

If I were in my right mind, I wouldn’t fall for such a suggestion.

Summary

The three mindsets necessary for adults with no time to learn English

are as follows.

Above all, what’s important is “losing your sanity.”
And not waking up from it (lol).

A note of caution here!

If you read this article and thought you’d like to give it a try,
I want to tell you this.

Please do not try to do all the study methods I introduced at once.

You’ll probably burn out. I would burn out.
There are many other things in daily life that require your brain’s resources.
The average human brain doesn’t have that much usable memory, after all.
There’s no external storage, and you can’t upgrade the RAM.

What I did was drip-feed learning.

Like an IV drip, I constantly took in English, just a little bit at a time.

I didn't put too much pressure on myself, and I kept myself in a state of self-hypnosis.
Because I couldn't afford to wake up (laughs).

Actually,
once I passed the Eiken Pre-1st Grade exam,
I stopped studying English.
I had been studying as if possessed until then, so
the moment I reached my goal,
it was like a spell had been broken.


I don't have any opportunities to use English at work, either.

Even so,
the experience of learning English has built the confidence I have today,
to the point where I feel I'll be fine whenever I need it.
Since I know the learning method that works for me,
I'm ready to lose my mind again whenever the trigger is pulled.

Now it's your turn to lose your mind and gain confidence.

Isn't there something you've felt frustrated about?
Isn't there someone you want to prove wrong?
You have a favorite celebrity you love so much you want to chase them all over the world, don't you?

The moment you've finished reading this far is your starting point.