Carol Rinnert
(1986-87) & Richard C. Parker
We first came to LIOJ in July of 1986, after having spent two years in Yemen on a Fulbright lectureship and then two years back in Boise, Idaho, U.S.A., where Carol had been teaching at Boise State University for 10 years. We stayed at LIOJ for 9 months, leaving when Carol was offered a full-time position teaching linguistics and English at Hiroshima University.
Carol taught in the month-long intensive English program mainly for Japanese business people, including micro-, macro-, and business English at all levels from beginning to advanced, and at two of the summer workshops for Japanese teachers. Richard contributed as a member of the family in various ways, ranging from moral and logistic support to creating visual images of Odawara on note cards and designs for LIOJ T-shirts.
Among the memories we have of our life in Odawara, some of the most vivid and long-lasting include learning to appreciate sumo while watching TV with other teachers and staff in the Asia Center, viewing a volcanic eruption on Oshima from the roof, and socializing with LIOJ students, teachers, and staff. We also treasure the fabulous trip we took at the end of our first summer to the Japan Alps, staying in an family-run minshuku with a outdoor hot spring, and especially the generosity of the Shibasawas who made us feel welcome in their guest house in Nagano and in so many other ways.
Although we intended to stay only one or two years in Japan when we first arrived, we are still in Hiroshima 16 years later. Our positive experience at LIOJ certainly contributed to our deciding to make a long-term stay in Japan. Carol has not missed any JALT national conferences since the first one she attended while she was teaching at LIOJ, has served as an officer at both the local and national levels, and is still a member of the editorial board for JALT Journal. She is thoroughly enjoying her teaching job at Hiroshima City University, where she has been able to pursue her research interests comparing English and Japanese language and culture and direct graduate student research. Richard has taken over most of the household chores and become a good cook. He has kept up his Oregon architectural license, does some freelance editing of Japanese to English translations of mainly scientific writing, and creates a wide variety of artwork, including watercolors, computer graphics, and rock and wire sculpture, much of it inspired by Japanese aesthetics.
March 2003
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