It was difficult to choose a Linguist Learner of the Month as we have many deserving members. However, this month I have selected Hitomi Kunugi. Hitomi is 44 years old and she lives in Tokyo with her three dogs. She works for an international hotel as a personal assistant to an executive and she must speak English often.
Hitomi learned English for three years in junior high school and for three years in high school. In addition to that, she was an exchange student in the United States for one year and she attended college there for several more. Hitomi didn't attend English schools or actively try to improve her English skills after she started working. However, she decided to start studying English again because she felt her speaking abilities were getting worse as she got older. Therefore, she decided to start studying on her own. She bought text books from ALC's "interpreter course" and got to know about The Linguist through some of their learners' blogs. Hitomi enjoys The Linguist system for many reasons. One of which is the fact that there is always someone monitoring her progress. Although The Linguist system takes a lot of self-motivation and discipline, she knows she can ask for help whenever she needs it. She can set up a 1 on 1 conversation, send emails and post questions on the community forum. She can also look at her progress reports so she knows how much or how little she has studied.
Furthermore, Hitomi likes the fact that The Linguist is an integrated system that focuses on reading, listening, speaking and writing. Hitomi spends time on all of these activities but she definitely enjoys writing the most. She looks forward to receiving her corrections so she can learn from her mistakes. In fact, since joining The Linguist, several of Hitomi's co-workers have told her that her writing has improved and become more sophisticated. She also feels more confident in her writing abilities.
Hitomi has made many friends on The Linguist and she enjoys getting to know people from all over the world both on the discussions and on her blog.
