Work or Not Work 3

December 22, 2013

As I mentioned in the last story, at Narita Airport, I decided to study English. When I talked about this event to one of my English teachers, he said that it was called 'Narita XXXX'. I forgot the correct word for XXXX but the meaning is that 'starting to learn English after the Narita experience'. When I heard this expression, it immediately reminded me of the term 'Narita rikon'; rikon is the Japanese word which means 'divorce'. I don't know that this word is still used now or not. It works like this:
At that time, going abroad was a very rare thing for common people, so a couple's honeymoon would be the first trip abroad. Staying in foreign countries is a hard thing, especially if it was one's first experience. On honeymoons, new husbands usually

have enthusiasm to escort their wives, but they couldn't because of the language barrier. One's wife might be eager to go to 5th Avenue in NY, but they might take a wrong subway or bus and they couldn't get there, for example. During this time, they might be tired of jetlag, but she would complain about his lack of leadership, and he would complain about her lack of support, and they might divorce.
Anyways, the term my English teacher mentioned was opposite of this, in a positive meaning. When tourists return from abroad, they have a motivation to study English, realizing that English is useful in foreign countries and that their English doesn't work at all. Like me. The teacher didn't mention about whether the tourists actually starts to learn English or just thinking. But, I started to learn English. (Someday I'll ask the teacher for what 'XXXX' exactly is.)
After returning to Morioka, my hometown, I started to look for English schools. I thought there were no famous Japan-wide English schools, like NOVA or AEON or Berlitz at that time, so I knocked on the doors of some local English schools in downtown Morioka. I forgot how many schools I went to, maybe not so many two or three, and I decided to enter one of the schools. I couldn't remember why I joined that class either, but I joined the class that was held on Monday nights. I can clearly remember that the class was called 'Monday class' so I learned on Monday nights.
The Monday class's members were six people including me, except the teacher. The students consisted of 4 women and 2 men, and their English levels were different, but I can say that I was the lowest. The highest was a woman in her early 30's, her level was outstanding amongst us. Now I can say schools should divide classes depending on the level of the student's level, but at that time, the number of the students were not so many so they probably made the class like this. And the most inappropriate part for me about the school was the teacher was a native speaker who didn't know any Japanese.