My Autobiography as a Writer - Haruna

By Haruna Tonomura

I’m not a good writer in both Japanese and English. Usually I don’t write so much. Im ashamed of writing my feelings, since I have never kept a diary. I’m afraid that someone will read my diary. In addition, I haven’t written a letter to my friends so many times. I am so shy that I can’t write frankly. I didn’t write a letter especially after I got a cellular phone. I sent a short e-mail instead of writing a long letter.

There are some reasons why I don’t like writing. One of the reasons is that teachers made me to write a long book report every year since I was an elementary school student. It was summer homework and I had to write more than 2,400 letters. I managed to hand in my report every year. This homework made me dejected. I think that most of the Japanese students don’t like this homework because there are only 2 or 3 books which we can choose. We have to read a book which our teacher recommends to us, even if we aren’t interested in that book. Because of these bad experiences, I don’t like writing. The reason why I don’t like writing in English is because I don’t want to make mistakes in my writing. I’m afraid of using incorrect grammar and spelling. Moreover I have a limited English vocabulary and I don’t know how to express what I want to write.

Writing English is more difficult than reading English for me because there are many words which I understand but I can’t use in writing. I need to practice to write well.