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Noriko Terada

STAFF INTERVIEW: Noriko Terada (Placement/Offshore Programs)

This weeks interview was done by Yamasa's Office Manager Tatsuya Kato whilst in China on business. He interviewed Noriko Terada who is working in China as a Japanese Language Teacher at Toyota Motor Corporation in the city of Tianjing.

K: Long time no see! It was in August, at Okazaki train station that I last saw you wasn't it!
T: That's right, and I've been in charge of lessons here in China ever since.

K: Last Summer, when you were in Okazaki you could open a window and it would still be hot, now it's winter and it's getting surprisingly cold here. Do the classrooms you teach in have heating?
T: Of course! But, the truth is, they only finally started using it the day before yesterday. Without wearing leggings under my trousers I wouldn't have been able to bear the cold. The electricity failed once, and we had to cancel lessons at the end of one of the days. Also, the copy machine broke down, the quality of the chalk for the blackboards is not very good and all different thicknesses! I forgot to ask you to bring an extension cap for the short pieces of chalk to make using them easier.

K: You don't use white boards then?
T: It changed. White boards are difficult to use - which sounds very strange - the chalk powder is already making me cough.

K: As always, you're using words that mimic the sounds your describing alot, like 'bara bara', 'geho geho', 'poki poki' and so on. It's an occupational hazard! A personality trait maybe? Ah, here's the stuff that you asked me to bring you from Japan....
T: Thank you! Past Japanese Language Proficiency Test papers, car advertisements, flat advertisements and some fashion magazines!

K: I understand the reason why you wanted the test papers, but how are you going to use the other things in class?
T: All the students are Toyota employees and I wanted to show them how their products are marketed in Japan so I show them Japanese advertisements. At the moment, I'm teaching my students how to order, and I thought these would be a good way to teach them about prices, costs, comparisons, adjectives and how to use the infinitive. If it's something Japanese I can use it as a teaching material. Recently I have also had a class teaching words that are used in Japanese but come from foreign languages (gairaigo). From the fashion magazine there are lots of foreign words such as short, long, etc, and we'll soon be doing roleplays about going to the hairdressers.

K: I undertsand. It's good that I just brought Toyota advertisements. I'm sure they'd all be very surprised.
T: Yes...but some things in China, in comparison to Japan, are more expensive. For example, if I bought an apartment in Tianjing, one square metre would cost about 60,000 Yen. That's only the price of the floor space - furniture, windows and other things are not included. Even so, some children often move with their families to be close to the school they are studying at. Close enough, in fact, to be able to have lunch at home everyday.
K: It seems over-protective! So you would never see students, like in Japan, carrying mobile phones around with them?
T: You do! Recently households with primary school children have begun to get mobile phones. I don't have one but an old lady who works at a grocery store in town has.

K: In spite of it being more expensive than Japan, this trend is spreading. I'm surprised!
T: There are Motorola phones in Tianjing and if you compare Tianjing to other cities, you would find it's cheaper there. In Tianjing prices of goods are generally cheaper so the cost of living is cheap.

K: How do you find Chinese life?
T: I get by. That reminds me, the other day, I was queuing at McDonalds and there was an old lady who tried to cut in the queue. I said to the old lady 'didn't you learn manners at school?' in Chinese, which caused a bit of an argument.

K: Can you speak any other languages?
T: A little bit of Indonesian and Spanish.

K: What countries have you been to?
T: Um........Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Thaliand, Malaysia, Singapore, America and India.

K: You really do like travelling don't you!
T: If the country and the location is different then the experiences will be different, which is what I like.

K: I totally agree! Whilst here I would like to experience something new.
T: It's difficult to tell, but I think you've now just experienced something new!

K: Eh! The meat I just ate?!
T: .............

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