＜Speaker：Mr.Nakagawa　，Title：“The Awesome Way of Communication”＞
　Have you ever thought it difficult to talk to Americans? You can’t say what you want to, you can’t understand what they say... I think one of the reasons we can’t communicate well with Americans is because we don’t know enough spoken expressions. For example, do you know the word “awesome”? I think many of you don’t know this word. But it is a very familiar word to young Japanese. It means “cool” or “wonderful”. It is one example of spoken expressions. Last summer, I went to Indiana to do homestay. And there, I got a lot of great experiences. Needless to say, having learned “awesome” is one of them. Today, I will talk about my “awesome” experiences in America.

　When I saw my host family first, I got a little nervous, but my host family was kind enough to accept me very friendlily though we had never met before. This family consists of 7 people, Mom, Dad, three sisters and two brothers. I spent most of the time with the youngest brother, Dominick, and the 2nd youngest brother Issac. Dominick was 6 years old and he was always offering me to swim with him. “Taro! Come here! Let’s go swimming!!” So, I played with him every day. Issac was 14 years old and he played football day in and day out. Despite his age, he was much taller than me. Though he was very busy playing football, he sometimes took me to his friend’s house or to the Festival.

　One Sunday afternoon, Issac and I went shopping to a shopping mall. And when we were looking around a hatter, he said to me, “This cap is awesome, isn’t it!?” It was the first time to hear “awesome”. Of course I didn’t know the meaning of “awesome”. So, I answered immediately, “Yes... it is...”
　After this, I got to hear this word often, but I couldn’t understand the meaning for a while. Finally, the day came when I understood the meaning of “awesome”. When I visited Issac’s friend, I talked with him, and he said to me, “I really like your shoes. That’s awesome!!” Then I realized everything about “awesome”. When they see something nice, or something great happens, they say “Wow... That’s awesome!!” Specially, the young often use this word. I thought “What a useful word!!!!”

　After this, I got to understand conversations better than before. Of course it’s because I got used to English, but the larger reason is that I learned spoken expressions which I can’t learn at school like “awesome”. On the other hand, because I got to understand conversations, my American life became more enjoyable. I got to be able to share the feelings with my host family more deeply. For example, when I watched a movie with them, I could talk about the movie, and we could laugh together. It usually seems natural, but I was very happy I could do the same usual things in America in English.

　My turbulent one month filled with surprise and inspiration thus passed in a flash. The last day of my homestay, I really didn’t feel like parting from my host family.
Mom said to me with tears flowing down her cheeks. “Keep studying hard and come back again.” Dad hugged me so strongly that I couldn’t breathe. I still can’t forget his warmth. Dominick was saying “Let’s hide Taro in the car and tell his teacher “He’s gone!””. That was a very tender joke. I tried to keep back my tears, but tears spilled from my eyes. I could only say “Thank you very much. I miss you.” in a tearful voice.
　Now, it has been 6 months since I had come back from America. It seems like yesterday that I was spending my enjoyable life in America. I can express my great homestay by one word “awesome”.

　Thanks to my “awesome” host family my homestay ended in a great success. Deep down, I felt the importance of spoken expressions through these experiences. Now, I’m very happy that I could learn many interesting expressions during my homestay, but at the same time, I should’ve had many more wonderful experiences if I had known them before leaving Japan. And I think spoken expressions would make our conversation more interesting and make our friendship much deeper.

　Do you think we have many chances to learn spoken expressions at school in Japan? I don’t think so. And I think that is one of the reasons we can’t communicate well with Americans. So, If you go to America, I want you to learn as many spoken expressions as possible. They will make your trip awesome!!