"Burandon Sensei"
One Honors Program Alumnus' Year in the Land of the Rising Sun
By: Brandon Groves ('05)
After nearly 13 grueling hours in coach on a Boeing 777 from Chicago, I finally arrived in the country I was to call home for the next year. I had arrived in Japan and it had just hit me that I was going to be the "immigrant." I realized that while I had taken two years of Japanese language classes in high school, I had no clue how to piece together even a very basic sentence beyond "I like sushi. It is delicious." I also realized that I was going to be responsible for the English-language education for actual people and it scared me a little bit. At any rate, I had arrived and I was ready to take on the challenge of living, working and surviving in a country that was quite literally halfway across the globe from where I had spent my entire life.
Upon my arrival at the airport, a representative of the company I was to work for promptly met me. To my surprise, the representative was a 6 foot 3 inch, 235 pound, blond guy from Florida named Rick. He was (as I learned from him on the train to the seminar house) one of the people responsible for training me to teach English the "AEON way." The rest of that training week passed by in a quite enjoyable and entirely odd fashion. I was in a group of 13 "grammuai" (that is a grammar samurai for those of you who don't know) with whom I had surprisingly a lot in common. We were drilled in the practices of this "intercultural communication" company (which is part of a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry in Japan) in Japanese fashion. That is, we were taught how to teach our mother tongue and were acclimated to the culture at the same time. It was a surreal and intense experience. Had I not been a strong person, or had my training group not been so much like me, I probably wouldn't have made it past that first week of training. Luckily for them and for me, I did. At the end of the week, the 13 grammuai parted ways and went to our branch schools. I had the honor of not only being the only person outside of the Tokyo region, but also being the person who had to travel the farthest. I was assigned to a smaller branch school in Suwa City, which is located in Nagano Prefecture (home to the 1998 Winter Olympics).
A year teaching English in Japan wouldn't be that without, say, actually teaching. However, since I was working for an "Eikaiwa" (English conversation business that teaches mostly adults and some children) everything was pretty much done for me. I was just there to be the "native speaker" to practice on. Despite this, I was able to form some very close and friendly relationships with my students. I taught them how to speak in given situations. I taught them grammar and how to use it in a conversational way. I even taught one woman how to sing Broadway show tunes in English. However, the most rewarding part about teaching in Japan had to be teaching my kids. I taught nine classes a week to children ranging in age from 4-12. I was probably the largest, baldest, and most outgoing foreigner that any of them would ever encounter and to them I was simply "Burandon sensei" (and they yelled it at me every chance they got).
My entire time in Japan was not spent in a classroom. I did have quite a bit of vacation and travel time. In that time I did some of the most interesting things I've ever done and saw some of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. During my "Golden Week" spring vacation, I was privileged enough to be able to travel to the Kansai region of Japan. While I was there I was treated like a king by one of my Uncle Stan's old college friends (a rather large Japanese man named Tetsuya Yamamoto). He invited me down to see his hometown of Osaka and paid for me to have a nice hotel room and even took me around and paid for my meals. He was the epitome of Japanese hospitality famous to the Kansai region. During my time there, I would go around Osaka and Kyoto and meet the locals.
While the people in Kanto (where Tokyo is located and where I lived) are polite, people in Kansai are friendly. I would go out to eat or to have a drink at a local bar and four or five Japanese people would come over to me and start a conversation. They would ask me questions either in English (that I would answer) or in Japanese (that I would answer as best I could and smile and nod for the rest). It was one of the best times I had in my entire year in Japan.
During my summer vacation, I saw the MOST impressive fireworks display I think I've ever seen and ever will see. It is known throughout Japan as the best in the country and it was held in Suwa. Thanks to my friend and co-worker Kanna, I had VIP seats to the show. It was breathtaking.
A year in another country wouldn't be productive without its share of faux pas on the part of the person spending the year abroad. I had my fair share and possibly a little bit more (just because I am an over achiever). I won't go into all of them, but the most entertaining of them that I will share is when I had New Year's Day dinner with Kanna's family and I nearly choked to death on a piece of mochi. Every time I saw Kanna's father after that he would laugh and remind me of when it happened. Suffice it to say, I now eat mochi like a pro.
All in all, my year abroad was one of soul searching, creating new friendships, learning to communicate across cultural bounds, and just plain fun. After graduating I was confused as to what I wanted to do with my life. I still don't exactly know what I want to do, but I have a better idea and I certainly know a lot more about myself and what I am made of because of the time that I spent living and working in Japan. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get out and see the world, but doesn't know how to do it.