Three English Compositions by Natsume Soseki in His School Days

Abstract

This spring I was happy to see at the Tohoku University Library the English compositions that Natsume Soseki wrote when he was a student at the First Higher Middle School and to copy three of them in longhand. They are “The Death of My Brother”, “My Friends in the School (continued)” and “Japan and England in the Sixteenth Century”. Reading them I wondered why he had become good at writing English in only a few years. The first cause I find efficient is that Soseki admirably concentrated all his energies upon learning English. The second is that all school subjects were taught in English, which inevitably increased his hours for learning and using English. The third is that his good memory developed while learning Chinese classics was of great use for learning English.