Noriko Fukuta

STAFF INTERVIEW: Noriko Fukuta - SILAC Teacher

The following interview was translated from the Japanese original.

Patty: Sensei, I was wondering if I can interview you for this week's newsletter.
Noriko: Me? The interview? Okay. I guess the time has come.
P: Haha, yes I guess. When will be a good time for you?
N: After class, let's say around 3 pm?
P: Okay, I'll be waiting.

Fast forward to 3pm.....

P: Thank you for agreeing to do the interview.
N: No problem. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
P: Kochira koso, yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Let's start with what did you do before becoming a teacher.....
N: Well, I've been working for Yamasa ever since I graduated from a 2-year junior college and a year at vocational school.
P: Oh really! So working here was your first job?
N: That's right. I majored in Japanese and Japanese Culture in college, but I didn't get to study a great deal about grammar, so I went to a vocational school that prepares you to become a Japanese language teacher.
P: I see. When did you decide that you wanted to become a Japanese language teacher?
N: When I was 15 years old I'd decided that I wanted to become a Japanese teacher because I wanted to teach at a foreign country's elementry school. However, my home-room teacher told me that I couldn't go as a single person, I'd have to go with my family. Also, I wouldn't get to go to the country I like, basically it's not up to me to decide. It was totally different than what I had in mind.
P: Wow, you already thought about what you want to do in the future when you're 15?! So, what made up your mind to do that?
N: When I was 17 years old we had a foreign exchange student from France come to live with my family. I'd become friends with her, so I tried to introduce her to Japan. It was then that I wanted to let other people know more about my country and for myself to know more about it too.

P: I see. After you graduated from the vocational school, you've worked for Yamasa straightly?
N: Yes. My first year I taught morning classes on Saturdays to 3M's Brazillian workers, no more than 10 students. The second year I started on AIJP in April of 1998 for two months then I was sent to China's (Tianchin) at the end of June that year for about 10 months to teach the employees of Toyota Motor Company.
P: So, did you learn the language?
N: I didn't know any Chinese, so it was really difficult, but all I can say is, my body language got so much better.
P: So did your improvement in body language help you after you returned to Japan the following year as a SILAC teacher?
N: Well, my improvement in body language helped me not to feel feel embarrassed about talking in front of people anymore. After 2 and a half years with SILAC program, I was assigned as an AIJP teacher once more for one and a half years this time and then I returned to SILAC in April this year.

P: It seems as if you've been switching around quite a lot. Since you've been both a SILAC and AIJP teacher, what's the difference between the two?
N: In SILAC most of the students come for just one month during summer or when they take a break from school or work. Some even quit their job just to come to Japan to learn Japanese. That's why they try very hard to learn as much as they can within the short time they've got. Also the age and job range of SILAC students is quite wide that it has an affect on how I view my life and forces me to think about a lot of things. As I mention to my parents about students in their 40s or even 60s are studying in our school, their reaction is "still studying?!" I guess for parents or older generations, studying is something you should complete in your 20s. They don't know much about the situation, sometimes they asked things like, "Are they married? Do they have a family? What about their jobs? How are they going to survive?"
P: And how about AIJP.
N: Students study for a long period of time, so they tend to run into different kinds of obstacles. Some of the students are able to overcome them, some cannot. They have to endure the obstacles. Both the teacher and the students have to put in a lot of effort, to strike sparks off each other for motivation. If just one person is working hard, then it will not work. Basically, both programs are very different and the student's needs are different too. However, I don't get bored teaching the same material over and over because students are different, so their response to the material is always different too.

P: Slight change of subject. Let's talk about your family....
N: We have five members in our family, my parents and two older brothers, but right now just me living with my parents. I'm originally from Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, but we moved to Toyohashi when I was 5 years old, so I'm a Toyohashi-ko.
P: So you commute to work everyday from Toyohashi? By car or by train?
N: Well, I come by bus and train. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes one-way.
P: Wow! Nearly three hours just to commute to work!
N: Compare it to my college days, when I had to commute 2 and a half hours just one-way, and it's much better now. That's why I always catch up on my sleep on the train whenever I can.
P: So what are your hobbies and what do you do in your free time?
N: I used to dance flamenco, but I stopped for about a year because I was busy preparing my students for Japanese Language Proficiency Test last year, but I want to restart it again. As for my free time, I enjoy relaxing, take it easy without doing anything in particular...probably because I meet different people everyday, so I really like to have time alone.

P: Any advice or suggestion for students?
N: When I was teaching AIJP, I was very surprised that a lot of students rarely talked to native Japanese people because they only talked to their classmates and teachers. So I hope they can find the chance to talk to native Japanese people other than their teachers in order to improve their Japanese.

P: What are your future plans? For example, after Yamasa?
N: Well, I want to go to Canada because I'd travelled there when I was twenty and twenty-two years old. I really like nature especially the mountains, so I want to go there and to study English too. Since my life right now revolves around work, and work only, I want to get away at some point in the future. Sort of like changing my life style and searching for other possibilities in life.

P: Thank you once again for your time to do this interview!
N: You're welcome. I look forward to reading this week's newsletter.

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