Hello. My name is Makino Ryohei a.k.a “Mackey”. Actually, Mackey was taken from my family name, Makino. I graduated with a degree in Business Administration. I’m studying English because I want to work in an international trading company. The truth is, my grandfather has a company that trades with other countries such as China and Korea. It is expected of me to take over the company  in the future, and that’s why I’m doing my best to study English in Baguio.

I am staying at Pines for 6 months. For the first two months, I took Premium ESL course then I shifted to Power ESL. After a month, I decided to change  my course again since I wanted to focus on improving my speaking and listening skills. This time I took Intensive ESL.

I am now a level 5 student and soon I’m going to Chapis (Advanced Campus). I have 3 sessions of speaking including my reading (pronunciation) class. Though I focus on speaking and listening, I still do my best to study in my other subjects such as business, idioms and vocabulary. Each day, I study for a total of 9 hours including my self- study time.

In the Intensive ESL course, I can talk  with my teachers since there are more 1on1 classes than group class.

The funny thing is that two weeks ago, I had a classmate in my group class who graduated,

so now I only have 1on1 class. (Haha it’s just like taking premium course)

• Intensive Course offers 7 sessions of regular classes (5 sessions of 1on1 class and 2 sessions of group class).

How do my teachers help me? In my speaking classes, my teachers give me 15 new words every day. We discuss the meaning and they let me look for synonymous words. Like for example, my teacher will give the word “easy” and I have to look for a similar term which is “effortless”. I study these words and remember them. Through this, I can say that my English skills improved a lot.

In my reading class, if I commit pronunciation or blending errors, my teacher immediately corrects me. She is very strict and I like it. (I prefer a strict teacher more than a lax teacher)

Class that helps me the most

All of my classes are best for me. I love my teachers because they’re very talkative, and I like talking. If I’m to choose only my favorite class, it’d be reading class. I can improve in this class because we study pronunciation that helps me to sound clearer and become a better speaker. We also study vocabularies. We discuss the unfamiliar words from our reading materials, so it’s like learning three skills in one class.

I think Pines teachers are exceptional because I’ve never experienced changing a teacher (in the span of 4 months). This means that they have an outstanding English skill for them to teach language learners like me.

I usually spend my free time studying English or watching English movies (British or American) in my room or a vacant classroom. When I watch English movies, there is no Japanese subtitle so that I can focus watching in English. I do shadowing, too. Watching movies for me is studying as well because the process helps enhance my listening skills.

Finally, I want to tell my teachers “Thank You”, not only for teaching me English but also for sharing your culture with me. I hope to see you all someday.