先日、新宿歌舞伎町で新年会。10時半頃に解散し新宿駅へと家路を急ぐと逆に歌舞伎町方面に向かう沢山の外国人。
これから繰り出すんですか。外国人観光客受け入れの効果絶大ですね。
さて、Ron-sanの宇都宮での生活、どうだったのでしょうか。和式トイレには困ったようでしたが。
During that first year in Utsunomiya, I had a chance to live with a Japanese family and lived exactly the way they did. That was one of three or four times over the years in Japan that I felt great exhaustion with speaking the language continually all the time. It was so mentally difficult that I had trouble sleeping and walked around in a daze on occasions. Quite frankly, with the language problems back then, with the cold weather, with the living conditions, the income, and the working environment, if all my years in Japan were like that first year in Utsunomiya, I would have left the country eventually.
Early days in Utsunomiya
One thing wonderful about my stay in Utsunomiya was that I found a family that I became very close to, the Iwamoto’s. I taught the wife English, as her daughter was studying music in Denmark and was to marry a Danish man. The wife was a medical doctor, and the husband ran a preschool kindergarten. When I met them, the wife was in her late 60’s, and her husband was in his late 70’s.
The Iwamoto family
The wife enjoyed our English lessons so much that when I moved to Tokyo, I deliberately got a place to stay in the northern part of the city, so I could continue to go to Utsunomiya every week for her lessons. Also, to make it worth my while, she set up several lessons for me in Utsunomiya, so it would be more worth the travel. In those days, it took over an hour and a half to get there.
I would go up late on Friday nights and give several lessons that evening. I would spend the night and give a few more lessons on Saturday morning. In those days, trains leaving Tokyo in the evening on Friday nights were quite often filled with drunks that want to speak to a foreigner. I made it a habit to simply act like I can’t understand a word they are saying, and they would eventually leave me alone.
このご家族とはまだお付き合いがあるとのこと。また、上記の幼稚園は英語も教える幼稚園として我が町調布にも事業展開。不思議なご縁ですね。
Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。正月明けくらいからぼちぼち。
皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。
ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。
もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。
＜新しい仕事が始まり、ストレスたっぷり状態！気分転換に漫画『武蔵野』を読んだ。安倍公房の小説『砂の女』『燃え尽きた地図』の読後感のような不思議な気分。大人の漫画だ（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞
これから繰り出すんですか。外国人観光客受け入れの効果絶大ですね。
さて、Ron-sanの宇都宮での生活、どうだったのでしょうか。和式トイレには困ったようでしたが。
During that first year in Utsunomiya, I had a chance to live with a Japanese family and lived exactly the way they did. That was one of three or four times over the years in Japan that I felt great exhaustion with speaking the language continually all the time. It was so mentally difficult that I had trouble sleeping and walked around in a daze on occasions. Quite frankly, with the language problems back then, with the cold weather, with the living conditions, the income, and the working environment, if all my years in Japan were like that first year in Utsunomiya, I would have left the country eventually.
Early days in Utsunomiya
One thing wonderful about my stay in Utsunomiya was that I found a family that I became very close to, the Iwamoto’s. I taught the wife English, as her daughter was studying music in Denmark and was to marry a Danish man. The wife was a medical doctor, and the husband ran a preschool kindergarten. When I met them, the wife was in her late 60’s, and her husband was in his late 70’s.
The Iwamoto family
The wife enjoyed our English lessons so much that when I moved to Tokyo, I deliberately got a place to stay in the northern part of the city, so I could continue to go to Utsunomiya every week for her lessons. Also, to make it worth my while, she set up several lessons for me in Utsunomiya, so it would be more worth the travel. In those days, it took over an hour and a half to get there.
I would go up late on Friday nights and give several lessons that evening. I would spend the night and give a few more lessons on Saturday morning. In those days, trains leaving Tokyo in the evening on Friday nights were quite often filled with drunks that want to speak to a foreigner. I made it a habit to simply act like I can’t understand a word they are saying, and they would eventually leave me alone.
このご家族とはまだお付き合いがあるとのこと。また、上記の幼稚園は英語も教える幼稚園として我が町調布にも事業展開。不思議なご縁ですね。
Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。正月明けくらいからぼちぼち。
皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。
ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。
もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。
＜新しい仕事が始まり、ストレスたっぷり状態！気分転換に漫画『武蔵野』を読んだ。安倍公房の小説『砂の女』『燃え尽きた地図』の読後感のような不思議な気分。大人の漫画だ（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞
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