The reason your English skills are not improving.

The reason your English skills are not improving, in a word, is that you have not made a firm commitment.

If you haven't made a firm commitment, you will never experience the need to 'prepare desperately for a situation where English is absolutely necessary,' nor will you make the effort to spend three hours a day on English.

I realized this when I decided to travel alone to India.

I had traveled abroad before that.

However, because it was my first solo trip and it was to India, I felt anxious even before I left.

According to the 'Chikyu no Arukikata' (a popular Japanese travel guidebook) I obtained at the time, there was a high probability that if I took a taxi from the airport, I would be taken to a suspicious place.

'What will happen if I go to such an India and I can't even speak the language?'

I made a firm commitment and studied English desperately.

It was a preparation period of about a month before departure, but during that time, I used all my free time for learning English.

Perhaps because I was desperate, I had the feeling that my brain was absorbing English like a sponge soaking up water.

I believe that language learning requires a period of high-density, intensive effort.

Therefore, I find stories about becoming fluent by studying for 10 minutes a day to be suspicious.

I think the process of forming the foundation of a language is similar to 'making the core ball for a snowman.'

Once that core is made, your skills will naturally grow just by rolling it, but it is difficult to build that foundation.

During this period, it feels like pouring water into a bucket with holes in it; if you don't do anything, the water will leak out, so you have to train with more intensity than that to keep up.

Having been able to build a foundation in English by using my solo trip to India, I later obtained Eiken Grade 1, although it took time, and through that English ability, I was able to get a job in Germany.

Also, I have studied Chinese before.

After living in Germany for three years, I decided to move to Taiwan.

I intended to live in Taiwan permanently, but life there was completely different from what I had imagined, and I soon realized that my stay in Taiwan would not be long.

However, even though I had let go of many things in Germany to move to Taiwan, if I were to leave Taiwan immediately without gaining anything, that decision would seem like a mere failure.

To avoid that, I made up my mind to study Chinese and achieved the highest level (HSK 6) of the HSK, a Chinese language proficiency test administered by the Chinese government.

And here, I return to the title of this article, 'The reason why your English skills are not improving.'

First of all, I apologize for using such a provocative title, but in truth, these are words directed at myself.

Although I have lived in Germany for a total of six years, I cannot speak German very well.

I passed the B1 level language exam (the third of six levels from A1 to C2), which is commonly used in Europe, and thanks to that, I was able to obtain a permanent residence permit in Germany, but even so, if asked if I can speak German, I cannot answer 'Yes'.

That is simply because I do not have the resolve to seriously master the German language.

I can get by with English at work, and while there are many inconveniences to not knowing German, it is not as if I cannot survive without it.

However, even without that resolve, I have decided to take the next level of the German language exam.

In this life that feels like a punishment game, language learning seems like a 'way to kill time that can provide some comfort.'

If there is something else you want to spend your time on, perhaps there is no need to learn a language at all.

However, I feel that it is difficult to live in this world with my sanity intact unless I am doing something like that to kill time.

By the way, in German, '(die) Note' means a grade or report card.

I think the site 'note' where I am writing this text is named with the feeling of, 'Let's freely express ourselves with text in a blank notebook.'

However, the articles posted on that 'note' are evaluated by measurable results: the number of people who viewed the article, the number of 'likes' it received, and the number of people who follow you.

The 'note' comes back to you as 'die Note' (a grade).

Thinking about it that way, it makes me feel that German might be a contemplative and profound language.

[Announcement]

I have published the following Kindle book. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited, so I would be very happy if you could take a look.

As of January 3, 2024, thanks to everyone, it has become a bestseller in the 'German Language Proficiency Test' category!