Masato is a Japanese student here at EC Vancouver. He happily offered to share about his experience practicing English outside of the classroom Here is his story:
Studying English outside of Class
I often go to drink at a pub or a bar. There are a lot of ways to learn English there.
I sometimes go there with my friends. It’s important to communicate with my friends. But it’s not only to communicate with my friends, but also to be able to learn a lot of English. I always improve my speaking and listening skills through conversation with my friends and with servers. For example, I learned about how to order, as well as explanations of the dishes and drinks. We also talk about our favourite menu items, our thoughts and our school lives. It’s a chance for us to talk with each other outside of school.
But I don’t always go to drink with my friends. I also go to drinking alone. When I do, I always sit at the bar so that I can talk with servers and strangers who sit next to me.
One day, I went to a pub alone. At first, I said to the servers, “I’m studying English, but I cannot speak English well.” Then, they talked to me slowly and clearly. Furthermore, they introduced me to a regular customer who sat next to me. He talked with me as soon as he knew that I’m studying English. We talked a lot about our countries, our favourite sports, and our life in Vancouver. Moreover, an advantage of drinking is that alcohol changes me from shy to a little chatty. That way, I can talk with everyone easily and I can enjoy it.
Advice for other students
I think that it’s important to study writing and to learn more vocabulary. Of course, speaking and listening are just as important, but I think that studying English is not only about studying English. A lot of things that we can learn about English are hiding, and we can only find them if we take a step outside of school. We shouldn’t only study at school or library. We also need to hang out to really improve our English.