Life Is Very Difficult

May honest folk proper.

The pleasure of learning English (part1)

I heard a college student say an interesting thing. She complained that teachers of high schools in Japan don't intend to teach the students the pleasure of learning English. It got me thinking. Was there any pleasure in learning English? Did I enjoy learning English? It didn't seem so. But I remember enjoying myself when I was studying English in my teens. 

The first time I felt the pleasure of learning English was when I was listening to the Beatles. I was fourteen. The song was Penny Lane. They sing, "little children laugh at him behind his back." When I heard it, the depicted scene came to my mind without my translating it into Japanese. This experience was immensely touching. I felt connected to the English-speaking world. But as I recall it now, this thought occurs to me. "Well, it is true that I was deeply touched at that moment, but is it the pleasure of learning English? It may well be not so much the English language that was touching as the feeling of connectedness.