I took the exam of EIKEN test, which is a test for practical English proficiency.
I had passed the Grade Pre-1, it's supposed to inquire a pretty high ability of English...BUT!!
I can't believe I have as much proficiency as "to use English smoothly in dayly life",because I can hear only half of native speaking at natural speed.I guess now I'm as equal as American junior high school students...(Junior school students' English may be more difficult,I guess!)
As to speaking, I can't explain 1/3 of what I want to say...words order of English is quite different from Japanese, so I can write them with slowly thinking, but speaking! It's terrible! I can't distinguish pronunciation of "R" and "L", I can't distinguish some variations of "A" or "O"...

How can I improve my English, especcially conversation?
Is it only practicing?

An English man said "cool as a cucumber" in his conversation...He told me the meaning of the idiom, but it's very fanny for me.
Why is cucumber so cool?
I imagined Mr.Cucumber has a "cool face" folding his arms,and he doesn't become panic anything happens.He is not strong like superman, but maybe he can solve every problems with his cool face.
It's so COOL!


Oh,it's "Goyaman" not "Mr.cucumber". "Goya" is a kind of cucumber in Okinawa, most south part of Japan.It tastes very bitter but I like it.

Today, I watched a TV program that said, "Now every country has its own English."
It was so interesting.In the program, they introduced some Phillipine English like "chancing". Guess what means? "Chancing" means "groper", it's amazing!
Or we Japanese say "to claim" to express someone saying something bad against something, though American people use the word "to complain" in those case.
My American friend was so confused when she first came to Japan.But for us, Japanese,using the word "claim" insted of "complain" is so common, so we say "a claimer" as someone who complains about everything.It's amazing,too!

The program said, "English is growing newer everywhere in the world."
That's true...Many people in many country use different English words.
It's amazing!!