"How nice to study English at LIOJ"
Nobuyuki (Shin) Wada
Congratulations! It's the 35th anniversary of LIOJ!
Thanks to LIOJ, I have been enjoying my studies here with teachers and friends.
Let me explain a bit of background, what else was happening 35 years ago.
I was a college student. I belonged to the automobile club and the tea ceremony club there. There was also the event of 35 years ago. When Professor Wada of Sapporo Medical University performed Japan's first heart transplant surgery. It was a long, long time ago. Almost all people know this - except very young people.
I entered LIOJ 7 years ago without paying much attention to my choice of English school. Before coming to LIOJ, I hadn't known about it at all.
I traveled to South Africa. It was a group trip. One of the tourists in her 70's asked me. "Have you been studying English in an English institute in Japan?" Because she saw me while I was speaking to a local tour guide in English on a bus. She couldn't learn English when she was younger. Then she studied it for 7 years. Now whenever we go abroad, we write letters to each other in English. She advised me, "If you learn English in an English institute, you will be able to speak English soon."
And I have another good memory from when I was a college student. I traveled in Kyushu. I spoke to a foreign woman at Beppu beach in English. It was really fun. I have it in my mind clearly ever now.
When I was looking for an English institute, I saw a LIOJ's advertisement in a telephone book. It said, "LIOJ is a small foreign country." I still feel like that because the entrance road to the school has safety humps that are often used in foreign countries. That's why I entered LIOJ. My first teacher was Lisa Brickell who was from New Zealand. She was a pretty woman. There were 10 people in my class. When I attended the first class. There was one thing that I was really surprised at.
In class, we called each other by our first names. It was very surprising for me. There are a variety of students of various ages, occupations and so on. Everything was new to me. I seemed like another world.
Then I had an Australian teacher, Jon. He was one of my favorite teachers. He likes beer, and so do I.
We were a perfect pair to go drinking. We went to many places - to see a concert in Yokohama, skiing and so on. Speaking of skiing, we went skiing in Yamanashi prefecture. There were 6 people including me. One of them and I were the drivers to go there and the way back. We both didn't ski. So we made a plan to meet the others later. We had lunch and drunk a lot while waiting for them. We went to a room to rest after lunch. We slept like logs! When we woke up we noticed we were one and a half hours late for the others! Jon and the others were waiting for us outside in the cold weather. They were shivering. That was our fault. That's because we got up so early in the morning that day and drove a long way - and we drunk! It's one of my bad memories!
The more I study English the more I'm interested in it and I feel the harder it gets. So I wanted to learn English more. I decided to go to Nova for 3 years, too. Additionally I had joined 2 special focus classes in LIOJ for a year.
Jon said to me, "You are an English junkie." I've really enjoyed studying English. After that, whenever I go abroad, I've always enjoyed ten times more than before.
The teaching system and the classroom culture of LIOJ and Nova are quite different.
In Nova, students can choose the lesson time when they like. So they don't have a regular class teacher or regular classmates.
There are 4 kinds of teachers in general.
The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
When Jon and I were drinking in an izakaya, I told it to him. Then he couldn't agree more. But when I told it to one of Nova's teachers, he couldn't understand it. He might think it is impossible to be a great teacher in Nova. That's the point of LIOJ.
In LIOJ, we have a class teacher for at least 6 months for better or worse. I've had many teachers in LIOJ and Nova. Now my favorite teacher is Diane McCall at LIOJ. She is from Scotland and is very smart and intelligent. I believe she must be the great teacher. I have her class again now and did so 1 year ago. The communication between teachers and students is important for our lives and for understanding each other and foreign cultures. She always thinks about it. Also LIOJ sure has it. There is a nice quote.
You can teach a student a lesson for a day but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives - Clay. P. Bedford.
As for me, speaking of learning English,
First I studied English,
Now I study in English.
There are 3 steps to improve in an art.
Firstly: to keep the way
Next: to leave the way
Finally: to break the way and to make your own way
I think learning English must be the same. While we are learning about something in English, we can get something nice and important. The other day we were learning about responding sympathetically in Diane's class, I don't know why we had to study about it suddenly. When I saw the handout, I was surprised. There are lots of ways to respond sympathetically.
a. Never mind, these things happen!
b. Don't take any notice of him/her.
c. Don't worry, it doesn't matter at all.
d. It sounds really awful.
e. You must be really worried.
f. Try not to worry about it too much.
g. Come on. Put yourself together.
h. What a shame!
i. Just try and ignore it.
j. There's no point in getting upset about it.
k. Calm Down.
l. How awful.
Although I might not be able to use all of those sentences in my daily life in Japan, it gave me ideas about how to respond sympathetically in Japanese! So come to think of it. We can study how to use our native language on some occasions from learning English. To put it in other words, how important it is to express our feelings through every language.
Unfortunately, words do not come out as easily as I had hoped even in Japanese. Especially, not for reticent Japanese men. Anyway, language acquisition is a time consuming process. It's very painful. Therefore, when we can speak English, we feel happy.
I guess it's the same as a baby's smile. Babies learn something day by day. They have harmonious smiles. While we are learning English, we smile like babies? I'm sure learning English can change our characters. That's more interesting than the ability to understand another culture. We may have a different personality when we speak in English.
I suffered from a slipped disk two months ago. At that time, I had a plan to go to New York to see the baseball game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. I couldn't visit. I couldn't walk without feeling severe pain. From the experience, I learned to appreciate the fact that even daily life is precious if we have our health.
In addition to enjoying our daily life, we can learn English at LIOJ.
I appreciate LIOJ - its teachers, staff, and good friends. And I hope LIOJ will develop forever. Finally, I'd like to show you my favorite quotes.
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking forward together in the same direction."
Antoine de Saint - Exupery (French airman and writer 1900-1944)
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." James Dean Anonymous
"There's no easy way to learn English. There's no royal road to learning. Let's just enjoy studying English." by Shin with love
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