EL Competition 2023 Why I Came To Like English, by Komai Ryosuke

I had no interest in English when I was a junior high student. English was so confusing for me that I do not want to study it. But now, I do not think I am poor at English, and I attend classes more actively. Something that helped me were interesting stories and essays. I managed to enter high school. Although I had studied hard for the entering exam, I did not have high motivation to learn English. “I must study English, but I don’t want to.” When I was losing my way, my English teacher gave me a great present. It was a homework handout, which is written in English. Of course, I was reluctant. But during the homework, I found the story interesting. It told me why cola was made. I like trivia, so I was surprised and glad to know that cola was produced by mistake. After that, the teacher gave me English sentences one after another. Some of them taught me a little knowledge like cola’s one, the others were funny stories. I could enjoy studying English because of the handouts. I am a university student now, and I keep studying English now. Instead of the handouts, I started to read English comic books because I like Manga. It is sometimes difficult, but interesting. (Especially, I like “FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST”!) These stories and essays gave me various vocabulary. Recently, I started to practice for the TOEIC test. My English experiences help me understand what the problems say. I cannot use English perfectly, even though, it is fun to know what you feel in English. I will keep learning English because I can enjoy it!