We had the 132nd session of Niimi English Salon on June 28th.
Our guest speaker on that evening was Susumu Yamamoto, a retired highschool teacher and local historian.
The theme of his field research is "Serching for the origin or roots of the Japanese" and we are fortunate enough to have the opportunities to listen to his reports on his visits to Southeastern Asian countries.
He had lectures on the 107th and 130th sessions of Niimi English Salon.
(You can read an English article on his session for the 107th Niimi English Salon on this blog here.→
Niimi English Salon #107)
He told us that we can see old Japan in Myanmar, and I noticed that this is the force that makes him visit Myanmar eight times, including one in early June this year.
He explained history, geography, culture of Myanmar showing many pictures he took during his visits.
While listening to his lecture, I remembered my encounter with a sailor from Burma (present Myanmar) in my student time in Yokohama.
When I was a freshman or a sophomore in English major, I came across a situation in a post office. A foreigner had some trouble communicatiing with a postal clerk. I offered a help and acted as an interpreter for them. The foreigner wanted to send something to his home country, Burma by registered mail. He was a sailor from Burma and visiting Yokohama on his ship.
He thanked me alot and took me to a nearby eatery and treated me some tea and dinner.
I told him that I was learning English, and that talking with people from overseas in English helped me learn English very much.
He was kind enough to invite me to his ship several days later.
He cooked me some fried rice (very good) on the ship.
The encounter wiith him made me interested in Burma.
I bought and read "Burma no Tategoto (Harp in Burma)" written by Michio Takeyama and saw its film too.
I would like to visit Myanmar some day.
If you are interested in Susumu Yamamoto's next lecture, he is going to join us on August 9th.
He is again going to report on his visits to Myanmar then.
Niimi English Salon's next session is on July 12th, when Mikiko Tsuchiya is going to talk about her recnet trip to Korea.
