The Story of How 'Eigo Mimi' Helped Me Tremendously (Part 2)

This is a continuation of the previous post (The Story of How 'Eigo Mimi' Helped Me Tremendously (Part 1)).
I apologize, but the writing style might be different from last time. Please overlook it.

English Ears for Children

Anyone who has raised children will likely agree that it is quite difficult to get them to do something consistently at home. It is tough. Truly.
My child is a girl and was on the quiet side, but even so, getting her to do something 100 times that she didn't even want to do was a Herculean task.

However, even though it wasn't my original intention, we started by using English lullabies, and since we had created an environment where it was a little easier for her to feel familiar with English (we had even made word karuta cards together), she was at least willing to do it at first.

I'll skip over the details, but in the end, it took about two years to finish the 100 times... Something that could be finished in just over three months if done once a day...
We started around the fourth grade, so I think we were doing it until about the beginning of the sixth grade.
I don't have the memory of that time anymore, but since it took so long, there must have been periods where we didn't do it for months (laughs). I wonder how that happened.

To get her to do it, I also did the 100 times again myself. I thought it wouldn't be right to make only my daughter do it, and that it might be better if we did it together. That in itself was good as a review of how to move my tongue, which I had largely forgotten.

Anyway, by coaxing her and trying various methods, even if there were days when we didn't do it for a while, I absolutely never gave up. I kept at it, believing that there would definitely, definitely come a day when she would feel the benefits, and that it would be for her own good.
Even when she complained a lot, I didn't back down an inch, saying, 'I promise it won't be a waste! It will definitely be useful!' In the end, it might have felt like my daughter just gave in.

A Little Incident at School

My daughter was interested in being an announcer, and when she reached the upper grades of elementary school, she joined something like a broadcasting club at school.
The duty of the lunchtime broadcast rotated, and there was a rule to greet in English at the beginning and end of the broadcast. When it was my daughter's turn, the principal even came to the broadcasting room because her pronunciation of the greeting was so good.

One day during lunch, while my daughter was broadcasting, some boys in her class apparently made fun of her pronunciation and got excited about it.
That's a typical elementary school thing, isn't it? I think it's something that definitely happens. I was actually a little worried about that.
At that time... the homeroom teacher apparently got extremely angry at those boys. The teacher was also attending an English school and continuing to study English, so I think part of it was that she knew well how much effort it takes to study English and improve pronunciation. And also the difficulty for an elementary school student to master it. The teacher seemed very angry that they had laughed at someone who was making an effort.

When I heard from my daughter that such a thing had happened, I thought, 'It finally happened,' and said,
'You can handle that part cleverly. Since you can already pronounce it, you can just use katakana pronunciation in front of everyone, for example.'
But my daughter said she couldn't do katakana pronunciation now, and that she didn't care, so it was fine as it was.
Around this time, I felt that my daughter had started to have a lot of confidence in herself.

Junior High School Entrance Exam Without Cram School

As for the lessons I had my daughter take, there were only two: the English school I wrote about in (1), and the piano school she attended for only one year from the sixth grade at her own request.
Strictly speaking, she went to a cram school once to take a mock exam for junior high school entrance, but that was really about it. Otherwise, I was doing my own 'training' or something like that. I'll write about this separately if I have the chance.

We decided to have her take the entrance exam for a public integrated junior and senior high school, but we only decided to do so when she was in the sixth grade. We had no plan at all.
This also had its twists and turns, and I feel like I was the one who worked hard, but for the time being, we managed to get an acceptance.
While having her study for the exam at home, I thought, 'Leave it to the professionals.' It is far easier to spend money and rely on outside help, and it keeps the atmosphere at home from becoming strained (laughs).

However, I believe that the confidence she gained from doing 'Eigo Mimi,' the evaluation from her teacher (I don't know the truth since they don't look at school reports, but still), and the educational policy of the integrated school (it was a school that puts effort into English education) all meshed well, which helped us get closer to passing.

And after entering the school, her good English pronunciation instantly turned into something 'amazing' and 'cool'.
My daughter gained a school and an environment where she could attend with great confidence and freedom.

By the way, both my husband and I are graduates of vocational schools, and of course, we have never attended an integrated junior and senior high school. We just went to local public elementary and junior high schools, and our high schools were also public.
The integrated school was a coincidence, but I feel that depending on how parents approach it, they can help their children improve their academic ability to a certain extent.
That is not just about making them study directly.
However... patience is necessary. If anything, what is most needed might be the parents' motivation and patience (laughs).
And I think it is good for parents to study something together rather than just making the child do it.

This is a bit off from 'Eigo Mimi,' but things that make me glad I did 'Eigo Mimi' continue even after this.
After all, if you only think about the money, the initial investment is 1,000 yen. (It is 1,760 yen now.)
The continuation will be next time.