Дайте аргументированный ответ на вопрос. What is the most effective way in improving communication skills- according to the author’s experience?

What is the most effective way in improving communication skills- according to the author’s experience?

№ 10.May 2002

What did most flights have?
What was the destination of the author’s first trip on her own?
Whom did she meet on the 22d of December?
What dish did she want to try?
What did she buy through the Internet?

It's been almost one and half months since I got back to Japan. I'm sorry that I couldn't update my diary soon. I was very busy during the last two months of my stay in London and also after I get back to Japan.

I'd like to talk about my 9th month in London - 22 April to 21 May.

Soon after the Easter holiday, I rang an airline company. I had a one-year open ticket and I had to decide on the date of my return. At first, I wanted to be in London as long as possible and was thinking of going back on 19 June. However, most flights had a waiting list, and I had to wait for a cancellation. I guess it was because of the World Cup...
In the end I had myself put onto the waiting list for both 18th and 19th.
A few days later, I received a call that they could offer me a flight of 18th June. I was afraid that I might not be able to go back to Japan as I planned, so I decided to take the flight.

The last term started. But we didn't have proper lectures. This term was for the revision for the finals. I had classes only the first two weeks. After that, we had revision weeks, when we are supposed to prepare for the coming exams.
But I made a trip! :D

My first trip on my own! I'd never travelled by myself even in Japan. However, by seeing many of my friends travelling alone in Europe, I felt like doing that myself! I surfed the Internet a lot and planned my trip.
The destination was Scotland! I decided to stay in Edinburgh for 5 days and join some tours to the countryside. The first and the last day were mainly for the train journey, though.
I bought the cheapest train ticket I could find on the Internet. It was the return ticket of about 30 pounds. Rail fares are variable in England. You seem to be able to get the biggest discount if you get a ticket 2 weeks before your journey. Mine was a one week advance ticket. There are two routes to go to Scotland from London - eastward from King's Cross (большой вокзал в Лондоне, конечная станция для поездов, обслуживающих север страны) and westward from Euston (большой Лондонский вокзал). There is a direct service from King's Cross, which takes only 4 hours. I chose the westward one that took 7 hours with a transfer. There are some people from Glasgow (They seem to have strong Scottish accent!) on the train and I could enjoy a bit of air of Scotland from the beginning!
It was early evening when I arrived in Edinburgh. Soon I headed for the Youth Hostel on foot. It was a lot further than I had expected! Carrying my heavy rucksack and walking a long way in the unfamiliar place, I felt a bit nervous. But I didn't get lost and finally got to the hostel! That was my first experience to stay in a youth hostel. I found it on the Internet, too.
There are about 5 bunk beds in the room. Most people were out then, but there was an Irish girl in the room. She seemed to be used to travelling and told me a lot of useful things about Edinburgh such as public transport etc. A little while later, the other people also came back. It was interesting to listen to their experiences!
I was surprised at how early they tend to go to bed in Youth Hostel!!

On the next morning, I had some light breakfast in the park in front of the youth hostel. Then I went to a hotel nearby. I joined a tour to Highlands that was organised by Gray Line. I found this tour on the Internet. Their website said there would be a picking-up service, but I was a bit worried if they would really come and pick me up. Soon, a friendly Scottish man came to pick me up by bus!

The Scottish driver in a tartan skirt also played the role of a guide. It was lovely to listen to Scottish English. It was of course hard to understand for me!
Most passengers were American. I was the only one who joined the tour alone, so I was a bit lonely. It was nice to be able to exchange some words with other passengers, though. Highlands was magnificent. We went to the Loch Ness also. I couldn't meet Nessy, though! Scotland was very hilly.

The next day, I went sightseeing in Edinburgh. This time I took a bus to the centre of the city. Getting off in Princes Street and walk along the street, I found a man in traditional Scottish clothes playing the bagpipe.
I bought a guide book in the Tourist Information Centre. It was a Pitkin City Guide. I like this series. I have the one of Oxford and Cambridge, too. It's got a recommended walking route on the back and if you follow it you can visit most of the tourist attractions of the city.
Edinburgh has The New Town and The Old Town. I went to The Old Town first.
Scott Monument, Floral Clock, Princes Street Garden, National Gallery... Passing by all those sites and I visited Edinburgh Castle first. This castle had a lot of exhibitions. I was visiting the corner to corner, so it took too much time! When I left the Castle, I found Tartan Weaving Mill on the left. They had many designs of tartans there, which was very interesting. I liked the sound of weaving.
Near a church, I found a tiny statue of Greyfriar's Bobby. That was sweet.
I was hungry, so decided to have lunch. I really wanted to try Haggis, so I looked for a shop where I could try it. However it wasn't so easy to find a place for it... In the end, I chose a pub and ordered a jacket potato with haggis. Haggis is made by putting some sheep's organs and oatmeal into a sheep's pluck and cooking it. Sounds awful! But it was spicy had an interesting taste and was much better than I had expected.
The top of Calton Hill commands a very fine view of Edinburgh. Edinburgh was such a lovely city. Just walking in the town was enjoyable.

On the following day, I joined another tour by Grey Line. At first I was going to join the tour to the Lake District, but the tour was cancelled, so I joined the tour to Loch Lomond. We had a brief tour of Glasgow first. It's an industrial city. I preferred Edinburgh in the sense of the prettiness of the town.
Loch Lomond was prettier than Loch Ness. Cruising the loch was lovely. There are many castles around the loch. Some of them are youth hostels now.
I saw a hair cow called Highlands Cow. We also visited Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle.
I was satisfied with the Grey Line tours. The guide is Scottish, they have a student discount, and the price is lower than others as far as I know!

The weather was excellent the last day. I looked around Edinburgh until the time for my train.
On the train back to London, I had a Scotch Pie which I bought in a bakery near the youth hostel. It says 'Scotch' so I thought it would be a typical Scottish food, but none of my English friends had heard about it!! It was a savoury pie.

My first trip on my own was successful! I really enjoyed it!

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“If you want to know the country better you should travel on your own.”

№ 11.June 2002

1. What was the meeting place for going to Ireland?

2. What places of interest did she visit being in Ireland?

3. Where did the author spend her last day?

4. What Air Lines did the author use?

This is my 10 month mail. I will talk about what happened to me from 22 May until I left London.

I went to a lot of places.
Taking advantage of being in the UK, I wanted to travel in continental Europe. At first I was collecting a lot of information for it, but in the end I decided to go only to Ireland. I couldn't find anyone to travel with, and Ireland sounded easier to travel in alone as they speak English. I joined a tour organised by 'Tir Na Nog'. It was a trip about a week.
The meeting place was Victoria Coach Station. It was really hard to find the representative of the tour there! At the place indicated on the letter, they showed me another place, where I was told to go to another place... Well, I thought it was a typical English thing to do! :D
Finally I found a tour representative. Most people who joined the tour were from Australia and New Zealand. I was the only Asian person. I felt a bit isolated. On the bus I sat next to a girl from South Africa, and we chatted on the way. We soon fell asleep, though. It was a night bus journey that took 12 hours to get to Dublin! We also took a ferry on the way.
It was early in the morning when we got to the capital of the Republic of Ireland, Dublin. We first went to the youth hostel, left our luggage and had a free time. With the map I got in the youth hostel, I found the Tourist Information Centre. I wanted to buy a little guidebook and walk around the city. However, I couldn't find what I wanted and instead decided to take the sightseeing bus 'Guide Friday'. I kept on the bus and planned where I would get off by listening to the guide and looking through the city. The guide was of course Irish! It was fun to listen to Irish English. I visited Dublin Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College etc. I was also interested in Guinness Factory, but the place was exhaling such a funny smell of hops, which made me feel as if I were drunk! So, I didn't go in. At night, I went to a pub where they have live Irish music and dance. I learnt about this pub in the Tourist Information Centre. I really enjoyed the evening. I had Irish stew (тушеная баранина)at the night.
We had a three day tour of Ireland from the next day. We were divided into groups of about 10 people and got on a van. An Irish leader played a role of both a driver and a guide. He played some Irish music occasionally. We visited some ruined castles, saw fantastic landscape, Celtic Cross... We also went to Blarney Castle to kiss the lucky Blarney Stone! It was funny that people queue to kiss a stone on the top of the castle! I loved the coast of Ireland, which was magnificent. In Ireland there were so many ruined castle-like buildings here and there, which was interesting. When we stayed in a small village, we went to a local pub. People in the village were musician and we had a live Irish music there!

To farewell, I visited my friends in Shrewsbury again. They took me to Chester. Chester is surrounded by the Roman walls, on which we can walk. There were many shops in the city. There were two storey paths between each shop and you can enjoy shopping even in the rain without getting wet!
I went bird watching for the first time, too!

There are still many places I couldn't visit just in London. I went to Greenwich and London Eye just before I left. I loved the view from the hill of Greenwich. It was a bit pity that I couldn't step on the longitude, as it was so late that the gate was closed.
I really enjoyed the flight of London Eye! I was right to try it at the end of my stay. As I knew what is where by then, it was fun pointing thing from the sky!

I was invited to a party by my Korean teacher. We got together at his house and had a lot of delicious Korean food that his wife made. We enjoyed chatting, using a bit of Korean occasionally. I loved the Korean class. I'm keeping in touch with some of the classmates and the teachers.

I went to Cambridge to see my friend again before I left. They were having a rowing race called 'Bumping Race'. It was interesting.

I had two exams at the end of the academic year: Korean and Psychology of Language. Both were successful. They weren't so difficult. As I love studying foreign languages, I 'enjoyed' even taking the Korean test! I loved the section of composition. I wrote as many things as I can until the bell rang.

It was hard to pack and find souvenirs to leave London. I looked around shops in London for two days to find souvenirs. As for packing, I used the card-board boxes that my mum had used to send things to me before. My friends told me that YAMATO offers the lowest price and I used the company. I think it was the right thing to do. They deliver boxes in 1 week. I sent some books through the post office. It took 8 weeks before they are delivered to me. The condition was good, though.
In the end, I had much more things to take back home with me than I had imagined. That made it so difficult to pack things before I left my room. I was struggling till the last minute.
I sold my desk lamp through the Internet. Someone bought it for the half price. It was a funny feeling to hand it to the next owner. That was the light I was using the whole time of my stay in London, you know. I was whispering in my mind and asking him to use it nicely! :)

The day before my departure was a very sunny day. I was staying in my friend's house in Wimbledon. (They are like my family in England!!) I took a train to the centre of London and walked around the city all day for the last time. I took many pictures, popped in some of my favourite places... I felt a bit sentimental. I love London...

My flight to Japan was a night flight. I spent the last day without doing much in Wimbledon. I didn't want the time to pass too quickly. I couldn't believe that I would leave until the last minute. I'd been saying that all day. 'Am I really going back?'...
My English mum took me to Heathrow. I still didn't realise that I was leaving. When I saw a lot of aeroplanes near the air port, I gradually started to understand that I was really leaving. When I had to say goodbye to her to go through the passport check, I couldn't stop crying.
I really didn't want to leave London.

I used Korean Air. There weren't many people from London to Korea. After studying Korean for a year in London, I found my self being able to read the Korean letters on the seat and ticket and understand some phrases. I was enjoying reading things like a little child who has learnt to read. From the gate at Heathrow, people around me were mostly Asian. From Korea I found many Japanese people. Gradually the language I could hear became only Japanese...

On the aeroplane, I asked for a document to declare that I had sent some boxes through YAMATO. I took a procedure at Nagoya airport and headed for the way out...

My dad and mum were waiting for me!! I was glad to see them!!
They asked me soooo many questions about the flight, my stay in London etc etc...

Soon after I got back, it was a bit difficult to use Japanese. When I tried to say something, it often happened that the English word came to mind first and I struggled to find the Japanese equivalent. Now it is often hard to remember an English word, though... :'(
Many things looked so small such as glasses, cups, shower, taps...
People looked small, too. I myself is small, so they are bigger than me. But still they looked so small to me. Besides, everyone had the same face. I mean the same face! It was a bit scary. I don't feel that any more though.
I was surprised when I went to a restaurant after I got back to Japan. I took it for granted that they'd have separate tables for smokers and non-smokers, so I asked a non-smoking table. But then, I learnt they didn't have one! I even tried to wait for the waiter to come and pick up money instead of going to the cash point myself.
Another difficulty I had was in a building. I wanted to go to the third floor but I ran up the stairs to the fourth floor!! It was sad to go back down! You know they have a Ground Floor in London, but we don't have it in Japan!
I've been having some reverse culture shock like that, but I'm getting used to the life in Japan again.

It was really good for me to study abroad. I learnt so many things. I cannot express that with one word. To put it simply, I learnt to know myself more, and I started to have self-confidence. I found it so fun to communicate with people from different backgrounds. It was nice that I could become friends with not only people from developed countries but also from developing countries, which is difficult to do when I'm in Japan. Wherever they are from, they are all such lovely people. It was great that I could experience it not just understanding it in mind.
I learnt to be a bit assertive than before. Otherwise, English service doesn't move! ;)

I want to go back to England to study after graduating from the Japanese university. I would like to learn many things until then through the reverse culture shock that I have a chance to experience now, thanks to the year of my stay in England!

Thank you for reading my diary!

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Could you prove by examples from the text that the author’s experience of studying abroad was positive?

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