In December, I really enjoyed the summer holiday because I went to a variety of places such as the beach, a mountain, and a market which was held at the railway station, etc. But I focused more on studying English at home because I felt my English skills were still poor.
　I wasn’t able to understand the English that New Zealanders said. I thought the reason for that was that I didn’t have enough vocabulary and I wasn’t used to listening to New Zealand English. So, I decided to remember vocabulary and I also thought about how to study English. I got advice from my friends. They told me that I should practice English speaking, listening, reading and writing every day.
　I followed friends’ advice and started to do that. As for speaking, I spoke with my host mother as much as I can and when I went out, I tried to exchange conversations with many people. I think it is the most important thing, because I can get to know new people and become positive. The method that I used to improve my English listening skills was watching English cartoons without subtitles. After watching them, I would check the script to grasp the exact flow of the story. I found it was hard to improve the reading skills because I couldn’t understand the meaning of long stories. So, I decided to start with reading short, easy and interesting stories. I also realized that I should read more. As for writing, I started to write down my daily routine and activities in English as diary.
　My experience of greeting the special day -- New Year’s Day was fantastic! I was at Octagon and watched beautiful fireworks. I also got to know new people there. They were high school students from Japan. We walked around and bought some souvenirs together.