Keisuke Nakayama
Managing Director, MRA Foundation
Director, Asia Center Odawara
My association with LIOJ dates back to 1968 when I first learned about its creation from Mr. Shibusawa. I was at that time the first Japanese student at Mackinac College in Michigan. As I recall, LIOJ was originally designed to prepare graduates of the MRA International Travelling High School for college education in America: Mackinac College.
That summer, a group of seven Japanese who had finished the first 16-week intensive language program at LIOJ and a few Chinese students from Hong Kong came to Mackinac. They were among a 150-member cast of Sing Out Asia. I was given the assignment to prepare for their arrivals in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a few other cities. I met them first in Santa Fe, and later I accompanied them to Maciknac from Rochester, New York.
The following February (1969), I returned to Japan after three and a half years in America. I was on Macknac College's Extended Residency Program, an independent study program. While doing my academic studies and teaching English to the Travelling High School students, I came to be partly involved with LIOJ in the area of consultation for those who wanted to study in America. I helped several students find an appropriate school: a junior college, a four-year college, or a university. That summer, I had the privilege of attending and observing the 1st Summer Workshop for Teachers of English. I had a little idea about how this program would be accepted and grow in Japan.
My initial association with LIOJ lasted a little over a year, until May 1970, when I got a job with a newly established international joint venture called JATCO, an automatic transmission manufacturer among Ford, Nissan, and Mazda. I spent twenty-two years with JATCO until March 1992. For the first ten years, I fully enjoyed my work as a staff translator and interpreter, as well as a meeting planner for the corporate board, the executive committee, and shareholders, among others, in a bilingual business environment.
My reconnection with LIOJ began in July 1992 when I was invited back to assume the current post as Managing Director of the MRA Foundation, and later as Director of Asia Center Odawara. For the first time, I fully participated in the Summer Workshop. It was a most fascinating experience for me meeting so many enthusiastic and dedicated teachers from across Japan and overseas. I have enjoyed the Workshop every summer since then.
I also observed the Team Teaching Program in a local junior high school in Odawara, and recently in a local elementary school in Hakone. I found the classes most fascinating. I said to myself: "This is indeed a revolution in language education in Japan. This was previously only possible on NHK radio and/or TV programs or in some higher institutes specialized in foreign languages."
There have been ups and downs in the thirty-five year history of LIOJ. I also witnessed the downsizing of LIOJ in 1994 due to loss of competitiveness with similar overseas institutes caused by a sharp appreciation of yen. It was a painful experience. Now we are faced with new challenges and opportunity. Can we come up with a creative strategy to cope with new needs in public elementary schools? I think we can and we must. I am pleased and proud to be part of this undertaking.
July 2003
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