Writing: A Precious Opportunity to Learn a Lot of Things (Ayaka Katakawa)

English 1F and English 2F became my precious experience in my life. To be honest, before taking the course, I regarded English 1F as an only mandatory class and felt writing course was annoying for me because I like writing in informal way in my native language, but I felt I was not good at writing in English in formal way. However, after I came to get used to attending class, my thought totally changed. English 1F was only class which I could relax and I could study without any pressure because it was only for international students. Also, my thought about writing and my behavior towards writing could change through this course.

I am an international student, so I did not have any confidence about grammar, structure, and the way to organize the essay before. In English 1F and English 2F, I wrote 7 essays including informal essays and very formal essays such as a research paper. In each time, I could focus on a certain field and learn what is necessary to write in English one by one: the way to decide a topic, the way to organize the essay, grammar and language, and MLA Format. When I finished final essay in this semester, I felt that I was improved more than before to write essays in English and I could get confidence. Also, I felt English 1F and English 2F were very useful. Whenever I wrote an essay, I could get the chance to revise and make it better. In this process, I could figure out what is my weakest point and consider it by correcting mistake. By understand my weakest point, I could care about it when I wrote other essays and essays which were assigned in other classes. As a result, English 1F and English 2F provided me a lot of necessary skills for writing.

I learned not only general writing skills but also other important things in English 1F and English 2F. First of all, I could know importance of thinking things from not one perspective but a lot of different perspectives. Also, generally, everyone tend to think by the same way, but I learned thinking differently was very unique and interesting and it was very important. Also, my vision could be widened. Some topics which I wrote about were new and what I did not know before. As a result, I could gain knowledge and broaden interests. By this experience, I could look at things from a broader point of view. Moreover, the topics which I wrote about in English classes were very necessary to live in the United States. I have lesbian and gay friends here, and I could understand them more through the classes and writing essays. Also, in the United States, there are a lot of people who have different background, so I could learn the importance of identity and cherishing my own identity. Therefore, English 1F and English 2F are very helpful and useful courses.

Any writing became the enjoyable process to me if the topic was very interesting and descriptive. In my theory, writing is an opportunity that I can say whatever I want. However, before I took English 1F, only diary and formal writing were enjoyable. The reason was that I thought they were only writings that I could say whatever I wanted. However, my thought became totally different from my previous thought. I figure out that I could say whatever I wanted for any writing through English 1F and English 2F. I write a diary on my blog almost every day. Although I do not write in English, it is a good opportunity to put my ideas, thoughts, and opinions in order and learn about myself. Writing a diary is the chance to look back at myself and think about myself better. Writing essays has similar concept to writing a diary. In the case of thinking about the topic, I could understand what I was really thinking and I had to put all thoughts and ideas in order about the topic in order to write essays. So, writing essays is self-recognition as writing a diary. Without self-recognition, the way to think about the topic might get out of position and it is possible for me to lose aim and purpose for the topic. Also, writing essays is approach to make my voice heard. There is no mistake about my thoughts, opinions, and ideas for any topics, so whatever I come up with is everything. Through writing, I could talk about my idea about the topic under no pressure by using my experience and my investigation of research. Consequently, writing can be a good record of my life truck. It can be said for any writing including a diary, a journal, an essay, and a research paper although the type of writing is different each other.

In conclusion, before taking English 1F, I liked writing but I felt annoyed about writing a formal one in English because I thought I was not good at writing in English and I believed it was tough. However, after taking a course, my thought and behavior about writing changed. I could get confidence to write essays in English by leaning about writing skills throughout English 1F and English 2F such as the way to choose the topic, the way to organize the essay, language and structure, and MLA Format. Moreover, I figured out that any writing was enjoyable. Through writing, I could learn about the topic deeply and understand what I never knew before. Writing essays widened my point of view and my interests. I also could learn about myself by understanding what and how I was really thinking. Moreover, I found that, for any writing, I could say whatever I wanted based on my experience and my investigation of research because whatever I came up with was everything and there was no mistake for my thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Any writing is a good record of my life track. Writing always gives me the opportunity to learn a lot of things including myself, writing skills, and new discoveries including what I never knew before and what I have already known.