Studying and Learning

I'm just in the mood for writing in English today.

Besides, I’ve been curious about if English text is in demand or not here on note, so let me try this out.

What I want to talk about here is what I thought the other day.

It’s about ways of English learning.

I have a class from 1:15 on Fridays, so I left my apartment around 11:00 in the morning, even though it takes only about 25 minutes to my university. You might wonder why I left my home so early, but I just wanted to finish a book, that’s the reason.

I got there after a 25 mins of short trip from my apartment.

Then, I looked for a quiet place for reading, but I gave up because it was around lunchtime, so students were everywhere. Therefore, I had no choice but to be in such a place among them.

Around 12:50, I started heading to the classroom, and I saw one of the students in the same class on the way, so we entered the room together chatting.

She’s enthusiastic about learnig English, who’s a year younger than me.

Once she had a seat in front of me, she said,

“What should I do to become fluent in English? I wanna speak like you.”

I was a bit confused because I was not the one who could give some advice to her. Besides, the definition of “being fluent” really depends on the person. However, I was actually glad at the same time, so I told her what I did and what I’d been doing.

While I was talking, I thought of one thing.

It’s about the difference between “studying” and “learning”. Me as a Japanese English learner, I used to be taught these two words as if they have the exact same meaning.

So, what’s the difference?

Each of them has a different nuance.

I assume that learning is to know and acquire something practical with your interests.

Up until we graduate from high school, we study just for entrance exams. Talking about English, we aren’t taught any practical things but a lot of difficult vocabularies and grammar rules. （Absolutely it’s important to know some  grammar rules for speaking though.)
I think this is the typical example of “studying”.

Therefore, since I became a university student, I’ve stopped “studying”, but I’ve been “learning” instead.

So, once you know the nuances, they’ll tell you the suitable words depending on your context. Hence, that helps you to improve your speaking skill.

This is how I think of learning.

Of course, there are so many different ways to learn English, so the key is to find it and try it, I believe.

“Live and learn”(人生何事も経験だ/ 知らなかった)
As this phrase describes, learning never ends until we finish our lives.

That is all I wanted to share with you.

Thank you for reading till the end!
If you want to read articles like this or short stories in English again, let me know in the comment below or Like 👍

Bye :)