LIOJ 35th Anniversary
Mary Scholl
(1993-95)

When Don Maybin called Donald Freeman in December of 1992 to say he was looking for someone who loved to teach kids, I was lucky enough to be around the SIT campus and looking for international work. My friend and classmate, Steve Cornwell, had already been accepted, and I came to LIOJ in March of 1993, almost a year after finishing coursework at the School for International Training. For two years I taught in the Community Program with kids, teenagers and adults.

Images that come to mind as I think back on those years:

  • tom yum soup with Steve and Gina on Thursday nights;

  • walks home down pig farm road;

  • the infamous banana splits for the summer BBQ;

  • team teaching the new kindergarten class, and a little boy named Genki who actually knew much more than we could have guessed;

  • the advanced adult class and their ways of being;

  • the teachers' room and the stories and care packages shared;

  • Yukiko Kato and her heartfelt generosity;

  • Steve dressed up as Santa Claus;

  • laughing with Abet;

  • inappropriate but somewhat funny practical jokes;

  • that cool coffee shop in the temple;

  • Eric's and my students' generosity and kindness after a moped accident;

  • cooking a thanksgiving turkey in the kamaboko ovens;

  • Julie's green apartment;

  • traveling to Thailand and Vietnam with Lynn;

  • the fire festival at the bottom of the hill;

  • Yoshiko's, Kazumi's, and Kazuko's kindness;

  • and many shared dinners with friends and students.

    Professionally, LIOJ was a wonderful beginning for me as we had the support and time to dive into the world of learning and teaching. Our supervisor, Mary Ann, offered enthusiastic support when Gina and I wanted to write a new kind of curriculum for the children's program, and other teachers helped work on the curriculum. One of my favorite teaching memories is the day that 8-year-old Takayoshi came in so excited. He shouted that THAT day was the day that he would finally get to take his book home-and he KNEW he could easily talk about it in English. One of our students from the High School Intensives, Masayo Abe, was also student of mine at Kansai Gaidai, then came to the USA to au pair for a friend of mine and is now at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. We never know how our paths will connect or reconnect! The LIOJ "experience" was my introduction to Japan and gave me an opportunity to sow my teaching seeds and also offered me the chance to meet some folks that have had a significant impact on my life!

    After LIOJ, I worked at Kansai Gaidai and then at Kansai Daigaku before heading back to the Americas. After a position with the School for International Training as the on-site coordinator of a school change project at a large language school in Rio de Janeiro, my husband Wilberth and I are finally home on our 14 acre farm in the heart of Costa Rica. I am consulting now and also a trainer and a trainer of trainers for the S.I.T. TESOL Certificate course and also teach an online course for the International Diploma in Language Teaching Management. We are beginning to landscape and build on our farm. We have a lot of fruit trees, an ample garden, we breath clean air, and swim in the river. Living in Costa Rica is a world away from Japan and I miss many aspects of life in Japan, but I feel grateful that just 20 kilometers down the road we can go to wonderful hot spring baths that, if I close my eyes, can take me back to Japan in an instant.

    April 2003

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