Let’s talk about English study today.

English is not easy to learn. English is not fun. English is not enjoyable. English is difficult, and hard, and painful.

Every day you come here to Otemae to study English. Every day you have difficult and hard and painful study experiences. I really am very sorry about that. I really feel very sad that so many students do not enjoy English study and that it is so unhappy.

But, we all know that your study of English is very important because it will help you in the future. Being bilingual in the future will make your life very interesting, and rich, and fun. Speaking different languages is a great experience, but the road to feeling comfortable in English is a long and difficult path.

The most painful part of learning English are phrases and verb expressions. But today let’s talk about two very important verb expressions.

The first is “Give Up”. I think that you know this expression.

For example, “I play the violin and I do not like it. I want to give up playing the violin”. Or, in another example, “You must never give up studying English at Otemae. You must study English forever.” Or, one more example, “I love my friends and I never give up on my friends”.

But there are some things that we should “give up”. We should give up a hard way of thinking. We should give up angry feelings and revenge and negative thoughts. We should give up our seat on the bus to an older person. I think that your parents give up a lot for you to come to Otemae every day. They give up some part of their lives for you. So sometimes to “give up” something is a kind of expression of love and caring. That’s lovely.

The second verb expression I want to teach you today is “Hold On”. When we “hold on” it sometimes means that we are waiting. For example, “We are waiting for the teacher to start the lesson. We hold on for a few minutes waiting for her.” Or maybe someone wants to talk to us but we are studying. We can say to our friend, “Please hold on for ten minutes. My homework is finished soon.”

But there is another way that we can use, “hold on”. We should hold on to our good friends. We should hold on to the feelings of thankfulness we have for others. We should hold on to our dreams for the future and never quit. We should hold on to our families because they give us support, and strength, and love.

Recently many students here at Otemae have had an Eiken examination. I hope that you could have great success in the last test. But even if you did not have a great score, or maybe you failed completely, you need to hold on and not give up.

Lastly, as you are studying English and also for the Eiken examinations I hope that you will take some time to focus your study on verb expressions. The words are often very simple, but when you use them in combinations, they can be very interesting and give your English a lot of flavor and deeper feeling.

So, let’s “give up” the things that we do not need in our lives, and also “hold on” to the parts that are important and precious.

Thank you very much and have a great day.