~ 1970 A long time ago…
-Attended Los Angeles public schools
-Graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
-Received a one-year intensive scholarship for undergraduate studies to Stanford University
-Received a full scholarship to study at the UCLA graduate school
-Attended Columbia University Teacher’s College Graduate Division
-Studied Teaching English as a Second Language
I came to Japan to start the Tokyo office of a company that I worked for in New York while going to school. I started the new office, got a new manager and engineer and left the company to get married and moved to Takarazuka in Kansai. I was a housewife for a month, but I soon wanted to get out to work. I was hired as the Director of the Children’s English Department of a big franchise, training teachers.
After my twins were born, we returned to Tokyo. After my third daughter was born, my career as a teacher really began, and I had about 100 students from the neighborhood.
It was difficult to teach them, because what I learned in grad school didn’t work. It was like the way I was taught Japanese in the US. Once a week lessons, all English, and the only Japanese we used was when we opened our textbook: “White, white, the clouds are white Blue, blue, the sky is blue.” That kind of Nihongo didn’t help my communication skills when I came to Japan… But teaching English was quite similar, nothing practical, and nothing to help students with output – just repetition.