Chapter 21: CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"Well little buddy, it sure was a hell of a lot more pleasant being able to drive us all the way to my new school through some of Kyoto's nicest scenery. And a hell of a lot faster too! Now you can wait for me in this comfortable faculty parking lot instead of that crowded train station."

Be-Beep!

I got off my cub and looked at the college campus. Not much more than two gray cement buildings, one three stories high and the other one only two. And both looked extremely old and well used. But at least there were young students going in and out of each. I walked past a small, partially fenced off area that was crammed to overflowing with bicycles and small motorcycles, but no cars. The student parking lot?

I ascended the two steps that led to the entranceway of the three story building that I already knew was the main building and entered.

I wandered around the narrow corridor checking all the various closed doors. "Student Affairs Office." No. "Admittance Office." No. "Accounting Office." Still no. "Administration Office." At last!

I sucked in my breath and opened it.

"Ah, there you are, David!" said the fiftyish woman standing up from behind the largest of the three desks. She was the president who had checked my credentials at my interview. "I'd better get you to your classroom fast," she continued in her impeccable English. "Our first class starts in ten minutes and it's in the new building."

She hurried me down a corridor and out a side door onto a stone-paved walkway leading to the new building's entrance. The walkway wasn't enclosed but did have a transparent canopy above it and, unlike the buildings, looked brand new.

The 'new' building did look a little newer than the main building but not much. We entered and she led me down another narrow corridor that had mostly open doors much father apart than those in the main building's first floor, the only floor I had seen very quickly going to my interview. The translucent windows along the walls showed they were classrooms filling with students.

She motioned to a classroom. "This is your class for first and second periods. They're first year students so their English speaking ability is still not very good. Your afternoon classes in the main building will be second year students whose ability I think you'll find much better."

"But this is a junior college, isn't it? Why do you have them study so much English?"

She smiled. "We pride ourselves on having our graduates speak very good English. It helps them get jobs among other things."

"But what about all the other subjects they have to study? I mean this is a college. Not simply an English conversation school."

She waved her hand. "Oh, they have classes in all the other required subjects, of course, like science and social studies. But English is by far our most important subject. Now you'd better hurry in. The bell is going to ring in, let's see, two minutes. Here's your attendance book. We're very strict about attendance and punctuality here. You have studied our textbook I gave you, haven't you?"

"Yes I have." It was based on the audio-lingual method of just reciting set sentences that John had warned me about. But it did at least have some pictures and stories I could ask them questions about and hope they would give me answers that would show they had truly understood the question.

"Well I hope you enjoy teaching your first class with us," she said as she was leaving.

I summoned up all the courage I could muster and apprehensively entered the classroom.

Submitted: June 22, 2023

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

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B Douglas Slack

And so your teaching begins, Ken. I was always a little intimidated by my first classes. There was a difference, though. My students were usually ordered there so they could learn what they needed for their job skills. In most cases, English wasn't a problem.

Bill

Sun, July 2nd, 2023 3:31pm