No Pain, No Gain

Every year, tens of thousands of fresh college graduates in Japan travel halfway across the world to study or work in English-speaking countries on a working holiday visa. They all have one thing in common and that is they want to brush up on their English by immersing themselves in an all-English environment. Many choose to do so by enrolling in an English program, while others opt to work in places such as restaurants where English can be used daily. But, for 33-year-old Tsubasa Ishikawa, who currently works as a senior consultant at Sparta English, his working holiday experience was marked by a mix of extreme challenges and precious memories.

Determined to improve his English, Ishikawa, then 26, stepped onto a plane bound for New Zealand, which was an 11-hour flight away from Tokyo. The first place that he found himself in after arriving on New Zealand soil was Marlborough on the South Island, a region famous for its winemaking industry. As picturesque as Marlborough was, he spent 8 months not sipping the finest wines in the country but picking grapes and pruning vines on a vineyard. Although he seemed to have fulfilled his dream of being able to talk to English speakers every day, both on the vineyard and at his accommodation, he was struggling a lot at work while not seeing his English improve much.  

"I was working alongside some local (Kiwi) vineyard workers, but I had real trouble understanding their English because of their thick accent. I'd keep asking them to repeat what they'd said to the point that they just gave up asking me for help and did everything by themselves instead," said Ishikawa.

After 8 months of toiling on the vineyard, Ishikawa moved to Auckland, New Zealand's capital but stayed there for only a short period of time before embarking on a 3-week solo journey across the country, including a trip to Waiheke Island or otherwise known as "the island of wine".

Having spent one year in New Zealand, he decided to give Australia a try and moved to the Gold Coast in search of new opportunities. Before long, he landed a job working as a sommelier at a high-end Japanese restaurant staffed mainly with local people. But one year had passed in the blink of an eye and, in order to stay in Australia after his working holiday visa expired, he took up a job working on a vegetable farm in the region of Victoria. He, however, soon discovered that what he was doing then was the complete opposite of his dream, because most of his fellow workers could only speak broken English. So, after three months of working on the farm, he headed for Melbourne where he spent the rest of his time in Australia working at a local delicatessen.

Ishikawa's overseas English-learning journey didn't end there; instead, he went on to spend two months studying at a language school in the Philippines. Although he was already able to have basic conversations with foreigners, he felt that his grammar and vocabulary remained rather weak.

"(When I was in the Philippines), they taught me English in English and I couldn't understand (most of the time) because of my lack of grammar and vocabulary," he said.

In recent years, Ishikawa has made a lot of progress in learning English and, more importantly, has devoted himself to helping other English learners by joining Sparta English, among other things.

"As a consultant, I am constantly trying to further improve my English as well as searching for ways of helping my students (or clients) improve theirs," said Ishikawa. 

He added that every consultant, including himself, has struggled to improve their English before; that precisely because of what they have been through, they are able to relate to their students (or clients) and to help them overcome their challenges of learning English.

Keywords                                                                                                      Enroll (verb): 入学する 　　
Opt (verb): (選んで)決める
Soil (noun): 国
Picturesque (adjective): 絵のような
Sip (verb): (…を) 少しずつ飲む
Prune (verb): (短く)刈り込む
Vineyard (noun): (ぶどう酒用の)ブドウ園
Toil (verb): 骨折って働く
In the blink of an eye: 瞬時に
Sommelier (noun): ソムリエ (仏)
Overcome (verb): (困難に) 打ち勝つ

Author 

Name: Brian Yap
Nationality: Canadian
Education :
M.A. in Pacific Asian Studies, SOAS University of London (SOAS: School of Oriental & African Studies)
Past Work Experience :
- Tokyo Correspondent - Bloomberg Industry Group (An affiliate of Bloomberg L.P)
- Asia Reporter (Hong Kong-based) - International Financial Law Review, UK-listed Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
- General News Reporter (Internship) - Thomson Reuters Corporation
Areas of journalism :
Sports, Entertainment, Politics, Finance, Trade, Business. etc

著者:
Brian Yap ブライアン・ヤップ
学歴:
クワントレン工科大学の新聞学科 (バンクーバー、カナダ)
ロンドン大学東洋アフリカ学院の太平洋研究科 (ロンドン、イギリス)
職歴:
ブルームバーグBNAー東京特派員
ユーロマネー・インスティテューショナル・インベスターアジアレポーター (香港駐在)
トムソン・ロイター (インターン) レポーター
報道の経験/分野:
スポーツ、娯楽、政治、金融、貿易、ビジネス                                                

Brian講師が活躍するスパルタ英会話法人部HP：
https://corp.spartan-english.jp/

3ヶ月で英語が話せるようになるスクール スパルタ英会話HP：
https://spartan-english.jp/