International students take up challenge learning English

Everyday there are more reasons for students to learn a second language.

With immigration up about 8.7 percent last year and 22.6 million non-U.S.-born people residing in the limited states according to the U.S. Census Bureau, demand for knowledge of foreign languages, even for Americans who don’t travel abroad, is great.

Learning a whole new vocabulary isn’t easy.

As students from Japan who are studying English as a second language, we know this firsthand. 

In Japan, English education starts in junior high school, where students study mainly grammar for Japanese students, speaking English is harder than writing, listening, or reading.

We have found that when Japanese students come to the United States to study, we have difficulty communicating orally with Americans.

Different cultures have different educational philosophies.

Coe Lamoureux, Citrus College international students director, said, “Asian countries focus on the grammar. On the other hand, the South American or European countries focus on English training.”

Even a student used to learning languages, such as FLS student, Basile Stein, who hails from Belgium and speaks three languages, can find learning American English to be a challenge.

“The most difficult part in learning English is listening comprehension, and writing,” said Stein, an FLS student.

English is not his first or second language, but he can speak it fluently.

Though it is located in the Citrus College campus, FLS is a different school, where international students learn English skills. 

FLS students come to Citrus College from across the globe.

One of these is Mariah Delidsch, 19, a Brazilian student whose first language is Portuguese.

She said she wants to be an actress and use English in the future.

Her English teachers taught English in English, but students respond in Portuguese, so only listening skills improve, not writing. 

Practice makes perfect, said professor Connie Tucker, who teaches English as a second language at Citrus College. 

“Learning a second language in order to get an international job, or simply undertaking the challenge of learning a second language, are both good reasons to start studying,” said Citrus College ESL instructor Toby Guebert.

Each student has reasons for learning a second, third, or even more languages.
To master a language it is essential not only to study grammar but also to develop the ability to speak and listen.

We cannot avoid making mistakes while learning and we do make a lot of mistakes.
But we should not be afraid of making mistakes.

It is the only way to learn to communicate with other people who speak a different language.

How fun learning a language is!