特別ポスト: Places & Traces (Part 1)

Hello!

How are you? Here are some samples of student writing I am collecting over time for a collection called Places & Traces. This is student writing about places, and their memories of them. 

I'm proud to gather some of your A英3 writing from earlier this year for this collection. Please read these and make some short comments on what you think in the comments section at the bottom. This is some great writing you've done!

Let's start! The following are two pieces about touring around in the picture above - New York City. 

Walking Around the City of New York

Out of eighteen years of my life, my family trip to New York two years ago was memorable to me. It was during the Christmas Holiday, we flew to New York for the first time with excitement.

First, we took the train to Grand Central Station. The station was huge and the ceiling was filled with beautiful picture of the constellations. It was very different from the train station in Japan, but I felt that the railroad system in Japan is more advanced. We headed to the Times Square. It was crowded with people from various countries. Many billboard of the musical was out there, starting with the bright green colored board “The Wicked”, “The Lion King”, “Les Miserable”, and so on.

After we walked around the street, we went to the Ellis Island to go see the symbol of the United States, the Statue of Liberty. We took the ferry to land on the island. My excitement got bigger as the statue got closer. We didn’t go up in the statue, however we took some pictures in front of it. It was the moment that I felt “I’m in the New York, United States right now”.

In the night, we went back to Broadway. It was different from the morning. All the neon signs and the Christmas lights were on, that the city was still bright even in the night. We went to the Radio City Hall to go see the famous Christmas line dance show, “The Rocket”. The performance went great. As I walk back the street to the Grand Central Station, it reminded me of the book “The Catcher in the Rye”, because in the story, the main character, Holden, wanders around the city of New York for about three days. All the places in the story was there, right in front of my eyes. It was also Christmas season in the story too, thus I felt like I was in the world of the story.

This was only the first day in New York. The whole trip was splendid and I was glad that I could experience the world of my favorite book. It was a great memory of my life.

Fabulous! Now here's another:

Went NY for sightseeing

I went to New York City in 2011 as a family trip. Since I had taken a trip to Guam before, this was my second visiting to the US. Although the trip was short, it was a lot of fun, and I learned many things differs from that of Japan. This time, I would like to write about this memory and experience.

We used the Delta Air Lines and departed for US from Narita International Airport in Chiba. It was a long flight taking over 13 hours. After landing on the John F Kennedy International Airport, we went to the hotel we would stay during this visiting. The airport was so far away from New York City that it took us about an hour to get there by car. Soon after we arrived and checked-in the hotel, we went and bought some foods. I was starving, because I had only had two in-flight meals since we departed Narita. First, we went a grocery store which was located diagonally across from the hotel. I surprised the size of a huge Camembert cheese, and a milk bottle. I had never seen a Camembert cheese whose diameter was about 30 centimeters, or a half-gallon milk bottle! We bought a piece of that cheese, a bottle of milk, and BLTs. The BLT had a piece of turkey ham in it and was so delicious. Next, we bought hot dogs from a street stall we had found in the way back the hotel. It was really delicious! In the evening, we went to the New Amsterdam Theatre in 42 Street, middle of the 7th and 8th Avenue to see a musical Mary Poppins. It had the most fascinating performance and songs of musicals and plays I’d ever seen.

The next day, we went to LaGuardia Airport to fly to WashingtonD.C. Soon after we arrived at the Baltimore Washington International Airport, we went the Lincoln Memorial. I was excited to see the large building with huge white pillars. I went into it; looked at the gigantic Abraham Lincoln; read the words of Gettysburg Address carved on a wall of the structure. After looking over the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument, we went to the White House. There, we saw a lot of squirrels on its lawn. It was so cute that I couldn't help taking pictures of them! Next, we visited a grave of John F Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery. The flame on his grave was impressive. Finally, we went to the National Air and Space Museum of Smithsonian Museum. I was so excited to see the genuine x-15, a supersonic aircraft and other interesting exhibits.

In the third day, we stayed inside Manhattan Island, and see lots of sightseeing sites. First, we went to the battery park to embark the ferry for Ellis Island and see the Statue of Liberty. That day, it was so cold outside, especially near the ocean since it was winter. The statue was really big and dignified. On the way to Battery Park, we made a brief stopover at the 9/11 Memorial. At that moment, there is no One World Trade Center on that empty space. I was shocked to imagine that the terrorism really happened in here. Second, we went Wall Street. To my surprise, there really was a piece of the “wall”. I’m not good at English then, and I couldn't read the text written on it. It seemed to be an explanation of the history of Wall Street. It was after the trip that I learned that wall had a great history and was built in 1652. In the evening, we went to Rockefeller Center to see a large lighted-up Christmas tree, yes it was Christmas Day that day! A lot of people were there, seeing men and women who are skating. There are many decorative lightenings around streets. It was a splendid view!

The final day, we flew to Buffalo Niagara International Airport and entered Canada to see the Niagara Falls. While we were taken the immigration inspection, I was spoken to by one of the inspection officers. I couldn't catch his question accurately, and said “no”. He bursted out laughing and said “Don’t you want to see falls?”. Now, I think he said “How many days are you going to stay in Canada?”. I have to study English more, I thought then. The falls are so impressive and brilliant! Around the river, I saw some people fishing. I want to go fishing in Canada some day. By the way, Canada is famous for maple syrup therefore we ate them during that visit. It tasted great! It had a pure, sophisticated sweetness and a luscious scent. I ate maple butter too. It was my first time to eat it, and it was also great, my favorite taste!

During the trip, I learned a lot of things that is different from Japanese ones. Since I have lived only in Japan, I’m apt to think that Japanese culture is “normal”, but it isn’t at all! We have a lot of unique cultures around the world. We cannot easily say which is bad, or which is good not knowing their culture. I was also inspired to learn English and the other languages more. Language is so important thing that we cannot do trivial matters such as buying tickets or replying questions by officers when we haven't learn their language. Although I could not get over jet lag and airsickness, I really enjoyed this trip. 

Now that was incredible! Of course, there are many more places some of you have been to. Here's one from a trip to the UK! 

My great trip memory and of English

The mid-summer of 2013, my high school held a summer school for eleven days in the United Kingdom. I decided to participate in it, and then, I was to go on my first trip to go abroad in my life. In this trip, I had a number of English conversations―however, most of them weren’t what I expected.

The first guy I talked to in UK was seemed an Indian. We arrived at Heathrow Airport at 5 p.m. and it was 1 a.m. in Japan, so I was so sleepy and couldn’t remember how our first day was in detail, but the first, very short conversation with the Indian guy in passport checking became impressive to me. “Why?”―you must say. I’ll show you the reason later.

After three to four hours of bus trip, we got to Guildford Sally University in Guildford, which is a town south to London, and we stayed at a dormitory (flat) on the campus. Right after our arrival, we had a short explanation about the facility of the university from a staff, British woman. Of course, she explained everything in English, so I began to feel two different things: much excitement and a little bit fear for doing any conversations in English. The summer school was starting.

           

In the first English test of the program, not intentionally, I got a high score, so I was assigned to one of the highest level of class. The class had eight members and five of them were Italian and they were from a same school. On the other hand only two Japanese were in the class in the classroom: a classmate of my high school and me. It seems there was no room to join in them for us. In addition, they spoke English fluently, so I wondered what they wanted to learn about English speaking any more. Italian class mates were nice people and they tried to do much communications with me. However, my English skill at that time was so terrible such that I couldn’t read numbers in English, so I couldn’t do any meaningful conversations in English in this class, after all. This bitter experience is still in my mind and it has changed into my motivation to using and practicing English.

The program had two or three days for us to stroll and to go shopping at Guildford town. Guildford’s main street is on steep slope and it has hundreds-year-old churches, libraries, jewelry shop and so on, on the one hand. On the other hand, there are ordinary supermarkets, PC shops, and McDonald’s, so the town has two aspects in one place. However, we mainly used only one aspect, modern one; we went to a supermarket to buy some snacks with my friend. One day, we finished our shopping and were organizing our shopping bag at the supermarket, when a shop clerk asked us― are you from China? By our answer, the shop clerk may have been disappointed because she was Chinese, but I’m sure that the tool we Japanese and a Chinese used to communicate with in far west to east Asia was English, and this fact proves English, a common language, is the key to this world generation.

           

On the last day of our summer school, we went to London and I checked a Japanese food store with curiosity of how the Japanese food was dealt with in UK. One third of “Japanese” food was not really Japanese products, they were from China or Korea, but my point isn’t it. The store has one Japanese staff, and when I was making a payment at the register, she told me the total amount in English but I can’t understand it. Then, she said it again in Japanese right after my stopping. That’s may seemed odd, but it’s rare experience at least.

           

Oh, I’ve just forget to write about a Turkish man. He is an owner of a small pizza shop at the university. We sometime skipped lunches which the program included to buy his pizza. When we bought some pizza, we had a small, awkward talk about Japan. In this talk, I explained the Japanese money, and then I said “yen” but he took it like “aien” or something. At this time, I strongly realized the necessity of practicing English pronunciations.

           

Before the trip, I had believed that I had been going to talk to lots of British people. However, through my trip experience I’ve wrote, you may have already realized one fact―most of people I talked to were not British! Yes, merely an eleven days trip brought to me as much experience as a world tour.

           

Nowadays, I see lot of people from various countries in my daily life, and the number of them seems to have been doubled or more for this four years, and it’s on increase. On this trend, I realize the importance of the English communication skill; and for sure, the joy of it, day by day, again and again. The experience of my trip is still in my heart as the core of my motivation to learn English.

Another incredible experience! But this is not all. Follow this one with the Part 2 post to come with more great writing from you. 

See you there!

Images: Top - by Diego Torres Silvestre from Sao Paulo, Brazil - [2005] Crossroads of the World, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64685005/Squirrel - courtesy of Lawrence Fuest. All rights reserved.