How I Became a “Different” English Speaker and Listener (a brief article)

The author went to the United States to study applied linguistics. Although he was there for nine months, his English proficiency did not improve as much as he had hoped, considering that he was using English almost exclusively every day. After his time in the United States, he spent 10 months in Australia working and traveling on a working holiday visa. After 5 months he realized that he did not have to concentrate when speaking or listening in English, and he stopped translating from Japanese to English in his mind when producing English. His use of English was different. It was not that his proficiency in English had improved a great deal, but it meant that he was comfortable when speaking and listening in English, and he was able to use English without requiring all of his concentration. He believes this change took place because he was immersed in an environment where he was required to use English all the time. His brain stopped processing English as a foreign or second language and simply viewed English as a language to be processed like he naturally processed Japanese.