Why I Re-evaluated 'DUO 3.0' During My Study Abroad in Cebu, Despite Having a TOEIC Score of 900 but Being Unable to Speak

Hello everyone. This is Ichi.
I went to Cebu for about two months of English study abroad starting in October 2025.
Even with a TOEIC score over 900, there were many situations in actual conversation where I couldn't get the words out immediately. I have summarized my classes, daily life, and the effects I actually felt during my study abroad in the following article.

Through my study abroad in Cebu, I felt that DUO 3.0 (hereafter DUO) is the best vocabulary book for those who want to prioritize practical English conversation over studying for English qualifications.
Why 'DUO now'? I would like to share how to use it to improve the 'conversational spontaneity' that I keenly felt the need for during my study abroad.

Reason 1: It is packed with 'living expressions'

The good thing about DUO is thatit contains many expressions such as phrases and idioms.Moreover, these have been carefully selected based on surveys of actual native speakers and analysis of English databases.
In fact, during my study abroad, there were many moments in conversations with local teachers where I realized, 'Oh, this is something I studied in DUO!'
Also, the example sentences themselves are often in a conversational tone, so you can learn expressions that are easy to use in actual conversation, such as greeting expressions like "Couldn't be better" and idiomatic expressions like "Give me a break."
Honestly,when using it for qualification study, one tends to neglect idioms and the like,but by feeling the usefulness of the listed phrases and idioms firsthand, I strongly felt that it contained things that one should learn and be able to use.

Reason 2: 'Paraphrasing ability' prevents silence

A study method I felt was particularly useful during my study abroad waslearning 'synonyms' and 'antonyms' together.In fact, in the early stages of my study abroad, during conversations,
I would often forget the word I wanted to say (a difficult word) and couldn't get the words out...this happened a lot.Perhaps seeing me like that, many teachers incorporated practice into their classes where we would consider synonyms and antonyms to paraphrase.
Each word is very simple, but
since synonyms and antonyms are used in similar scenes, I felt that learning them together drastically improved the vocabulary I could use in conversation.DUO was very useful for reviewing such classes.In DUO, a 'synonym' and an 'antonym' are set for each headword.
This means that you can easily do the content covered in the classes above by yourself using DUO.
By the way, among the recommended study methods within DUO, the importance of being able to immediately recall synonyms and antonyms from basic important words is also mentioned.
It was a study abroad experience where I felt that importance deeply once again.

Reason 3: The 'Review CD' is useful for short-time review

DUO covers all headwords in 560 English sentences and is very compact. Furthermore, the audio in the review CDcan be completed in 1 hour even if you play all 560 sentences.In other words, once you have learned the content comprehensively to some extent, the review is completed in just
1 hour.After I realized the usefulness of DUO again during my study abroad, I made sure to review the headwords thoroughly on my days off.After returning to Japan, I take about 20 minutes every day to review DUO. It proceeds very compactly as it completes one cycle in 3 days.
At that time, I proceed while shadowing and checking the synonyms and antonyms listed in the vocabulary book. I believe this leads to improved English conversation skills...

Summary

Through my study abroad, I thought that DUO is better suited for 'improving English conversation skills' than for qualification exams or entrance exams.
I will also put it in my backpack as a lucky charm for my world trip starting next month.
I hope this reaches all English learners who want to improve their speaking skills!

After finishing my study abroad in Cebu and traveling overseas, I took the Eiken Pre-1st Grade exam to check my English ability from a different angle. While getting used to the language through my stay abroad was a plus for listening, I felt that different measures from TOEIC were necessary for vocabulary and writing.

Thank you for watching until the end!