This is the first time I wrote an article in my blog in quite a long time.
アメリカのとある大学に学部留学に来ています。
I have come to a college in the United States to study English.
滞在は１年だけの予定です。
The stay is supposed to be only one year.
初日から英語に苦労しました。
I have had so many troubles in understanding what other students are talking about.
最初は留学生だけで行動するのですが、彼らは幼少期から英語を学んでいるため、ほぼネイティブ並みの人もたくさんいます。
I am together with other freshmen night and day. They have started learning English since they were children, so they are like almost native English speakers from my viewpoint. At least, I feel so,
間違いなくできるのがリスニングです。スピーキングもTOEFLだと全員２０点後半でしょうね。
I'm pretty sure they are good listeners of English. They understand almost 100% of their conversations. I guess their speaking score would be the latter half of 20 on the TOEFL tests.
総合的に、僕が間違いなくビリか、下から二番目に英語ができません。一人だけ韓国人の女の子で出来ないかも？って子を見つけましたが、その子だけです。
Overall, I am at the bottom, or the bottom but one in terms of having a good command of English.
とりあえず、言っておきたいことは、TOEICで高得点を取っていても、そのレベルでは全く役に立たないです。
For the first time being, even if/even though you get high scores in the TOEIC tests, that would be unhelpful in this kind of life in college.
以前、僕がTOEFLを受けた時は９５と９６で、今はさすがにレベルが上がっているので、１００くらいはあると思っていますし、ニュース英語もかなり聴けます。
I took TOEFL before, and the scores were 95 and 96. I studied hard then, so I guess my score is, like, around 100. Besides, I can listen to news such as NBC and CNN.
それでも全然歯が立ちません。
But I'm simply no match for other students in terms of English, and this life is more than I can handle.
たぶん、最低TOEFL１１０とかくらいじゃないときついと思います。TOEFLリスニングは満点取れるくらいじゃないと、本気でお話になりません。
Probably, you should hold the score of 110 in TOEFL. The listening score should be the perfect score 30, or at least should be 28, 29. Less than those are quite out of the question here.
特に、TOEICは「基礎」の確認にはいいですが、TOEICで満点近く取っていても留学に来たら相当苦労します。
In addition, TOEIC in particular, is useful to checking if you have a good basic elements of English (only R and L, though). The full marks or around the full marks doesn't assure you can handle what's going on where you stay.
僕はTOEIC９８５点で、リスニングは２回連続満点ですが、リスニングが本当に辛いです。
I have 985 in TOEIC, and I got full marks twice successively, but I cannot catch up with conversations.
TOEICはあくまで「基礎」です。ほんとです。
TOEIC is just a basic. I'm pretty sure of this fact.
また、日本語が出来る人がいないと孤立します。韓国人、中国人はある意味その点安心して留学に来れますが、僕の大学には日本人がいないので、環境的に非常に厳しいです。
Besides, if you have any friend who speaks Japanese or can speak Japanese while staying in the US (they should be your friends and helpful), you can easily be isolated. Korean and Chinese have so many friends that they can help each other, and that would be really helpful to survive at first. My college doesn't have any Japanese, I am struggling psychologically with this harsh environment.
次に何をするのか聞いても、「今話してたじゃん」って感じの態度で嫌がられるので、しつこく食い下がって聞くと嫌われます(笑)
When I don't know what to do, I ask other students, but they face talk as if they are not willing to talk about what they understand, saying like "Didn't you listen to the conversation?"
人間関係では、英語が出来ないと、他の学生で英語が出来るやつには無視されたりします。（まぁ、金銭的には成功したとしても、そういうやつが人生で成功するとは思えませんが、めちゃくちゃ腹が立ちます）
In terms of human relationships, if you are not English user, other students don't hesitate to ignore you. I have experienced this.
英語ができて当たり前の環境で、あえて英語が出来てないやつに気を遣ってくれる人のほうが少ないのです。
In an environment where people use English, very few people take care of people who cannot use English well.
若ければ尚更そうで、学年が上になると気にかけてくれる人がいます。それでも、年齢が上がると大学生活に慣れてい過ぎるので、交友関係を積極的に広げようとしない人も多いため、仲良くなるのが難しいとも言えます。
The younger they are, the more openly they won't take care of people like me. On the other hand, older people tend to become more broad-minded, and they are for me. Even so, they have lived longer at the same college, like three year and for years. Some of them have already become too used to their own life to be positive to make new friends (Building new relationships has both advantages and disadvantages. It would sometimes be a kind of burden after all.).
僕は最初はフレッシュマンと一緒に行動しているのですが、彼らは子供なので容赦がありません。１８歳の子供に、３０歳の大人が無視されるのはかなり辛い経験です。
Again, I'm together with freshmen now, they are more relentless since they are child mentally. Being ignored by children like 18 years and 19 years old kids is a tough experience to me, a 30-year-old adult.
何度も相手の英語を聴き返すと、そのうちあきれられて自分から離れていく人も多々います。
When I ask them what they said again and again, most of the people here won't get to come and talk to me.
いい性格のやつだけ僕に付き合ってくれていますが、だいぶ英語ができないやつだと思われています。
Only a few friends who are good-natured people are not willing to talk to me, but they regard me as a stupid guy, like, "ah, he is a pity guy. He cannot use just English."
時差ボケ＋疲労で、夜になると英語が出てこなくなるので、人に会いたくなくなります。人と会うと必然的に英語を使わなければいけませんが、全然頭が働かなからです。
As the day goes on, the jet lag and exhaustion make my brain stop thinking in English, and I become able to speak or listen to English well. I end up not feeling like meeting people because inevitably I need to use English when I meet someone, but my brain won't work any more!
精神的にも肉体的（時差ボケ＋コーヒーを飲む時間も無い）にも辛いですが、なんとか頑張っています。
This life is really tough mentally and physically for me (jet lag and no time to drink coffee), but I am managing to survive.
僕の意見では、TOEICのリスニングで満点か満点近くが取れたら、TOEICはやめて、映画やドラマの英語を全て聴き取れるようすることに最大限の力を注いだ方がいいです。
When it comes to listening skills, in my opinion, if you get full marks or so in TOEIC, you should stop studying TOEIC as early as possible. And I do recommend you to listen to movies and dramas in English to the extent you can figure out everything people speak in the movies.
僕は、アメリカに来て一番困るのはリスニングですが、さすがに映画英語とかは完璧でなくてもいいんじゃないかと思っていましたが、いやいやいや、違います。
I have more difficulty listening to the conversation in English here, but I didn't expect I need to listen to movies and dramas perfectly.
映画もドラマもできるだけ１００％に近いくらい聴けるようにした方がいいです。
But, unfortunately, you should become able to listen to even movies and dramas.
また、映画やドラマで出てきた会話の語彙も、どんどんどんどんどんどーーーーーんと暗記しましょう。
Besides, you should remember every single word you've bumped into in movies and dramas.
はっきり言って、相手の言っていることが全然分からない人もいます。相手の英語のレベルが高い人ほど、僕はその人たちの語彙が理解できていません。単純に知らないからです。
To be frank, sometimes I don't make out what people here are talking about. The higher their English levels are, the less my understanding of the conversation is.
これからhuluで字幕が出るもので、毎日聴き込もうと思っています。一字一句が大切です。ちなみに、アメリカではhuluの日本版が使えないんですよ。
I'm gonna listen to movies in Hulu or some other similar services. Being able to listen to every single word is very important to build a good relationship here. By the way, Hule.jp doesn't work in the US. Be careful.
時間が無いので、文構成がひどいですが、取り急ぎ書きました。
I don't have enough time to spare for writing down what my life is like here. But I am writing this in a rush.
皆さん、頑張ってください。僕もひたすら頑張ります。
Let's keep going to the end. I'm struggling to manage this life here as well as you.
英語、甘くないです。 特に、学部留学したいとか、英語で仕事したいとか思っている人は、TOEICはさっさと卒業した方がいいです。これは断言できます。
English isn't as easy as you think. If you want to study abroad or work using English, finish TOEIC as early as possible and let them go. This is a fact, I warrant you.
どうか、応援クリックお願いします。留学、孤立無援でほんと苦しいです。
