Enjoy Shadowing!
When a NHK TV program 「英語であそぼ!」started, I was afraid that I would be left behind alone. All Japanese children, including my first daughter, would get used to English. Whether I was lucky or not, my fear was groundless. Even though children liked the program very much, it was obvious 15 minutes a day weren’t enough to improve their English ability. After all, I hadn’t done anything to improve my daughters’ English ability in their childhood except buying some English picture books, cassette tapes and a Sesame Street video.As soon as she entered junior high school, I bought the English textbook’s CD for her. I thought if I’d had a cassette tape like that my English pronunciation would have been much better and if she tried to imitate it, she would be able to learn real pronunciation. However, not only her but also my second daughter aren’t interested in English very much and rarely listen to the CD. They end up suffering from their weakest subject, English! Recently, I've helped my second daughter with learning English every night. She finally accepts to listen to and repeat the CD. I try to do shadowing it, too. To my happiness, I realize that I can recognize the differences of each vowel's sound. Now, I can't believe my ears hadn't cared such big differences for a long time. Even though the CD is for junior high school students, my shadowing is terrible. I can't pronounce accurately at all. However, I'm not disappointed. I know it'll be a long way to improve my pronunciation. Someone said, "If you keep shadowing for three years, you'll realize your improvement." I can believe his remark, because I realize my improvement in listening, writing and reading English ability, through my enthusiasm for them. So, I'll just enjoy shadowing for at least three years!