Regarding Takamitsu Sawa’s Jan. 20 opinion piece “Japan going the wrong way in English-education reform,” one day, I asked one of my classmates at school, a returnee from the States, “How can I be fluent in English?” He replied, “Think everything in English. Try.” Of course, this conversation took place in Japanese. I wondered how I could think in English.
A week later, that moment came. I was on a train on my way home. I said to myself very slowly in English, “Now, I am looking out of the window. The sky is blue. There are trees. The leaves are green. What I see there is a kindergarten. Wow, I am thinking in English!” I rejoiced.
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