Copyright © 2011 Kanda Gaigo Alumni Association(KGAA). All rights reserved.
50th Anniversary -Interviews-
In 1985, I was living in Hawaii and teaching in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii. One of my colleagues, Professor Jack Richards came to me and said "Professor Johnson, why don't you go to Japan? "
Jack Richards was also a professor in the College of Education and he was also a professional in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language. He was going to be invited to teach at Kanda University of International Studies, but he couldn't come. So Mr. Kazuo Yamamoto was very upset. Mr. Yamamoto was a member of the Kanda Gaigo Daigaku Establishment Committee. I don't know why but there was some regulation that the new university must have someone who has already been a full professor. Mr. Yamamoto said "That spoils all our plans." So Jack Richards said "OK. I will get the right person for you to take my place." It was me!
When Richards asked me to go to Japan, I said yes. I'd never been to Japan and never thought to teach in Japan. But I accepted his offer. I was just curious! I said I would only come for two years. The two things I don't like to eat are fish and rice! So I thought it was difficult to live in Japan for a long time. I knew that by coming to Japan I wouldn't last very long, but in fact I stayed 20 years. Came for two years and stayed for 20 years! And I am still coming to Japan.
Soon after I came to Japan, I lived in Wakamatsudai, near Tsuga. And one of the people said to me, "I'm going to take you to eat real Japanese food." And he took me to have "shirauo". You know that? Fish, alive. I don't even like cooked fish!
I came to Japan in 1986, just one year before the opening of KUIS. My job was to write the entrance exam and to develop the English proficiency curriculum.
As for writing the first entrance examination, I have a memory. I wrote it and gave 40% of the marks to Listening. And many people opposed my plan and said "This is very strange. Even 'Todai' and places like that only had 10% of the questions for Listening. We are a new university, we shouldn't do this". But my argument was that we were going to emphasize the spoken language in our curriculum, so we wanted to get students who have studied and developed listening skills.
There was a meeting of the Kanda Gaigo Daigaku Establishment Committee. There was some feeling about too much emphasis on Listening. And at that meeting, Mr. Ryuji Sano, Chief Executive of the Sano Foundation at that time, stood up. He said "This university is going to be a different kind of university, so we need a different entrance examination." And he supported this idea. It was his view that we were going to change things in university education. And it has been this support that has kept this university going as a different kind of university.
I remember also Mrs. Sano, the mother of Mr. Ryuji Sano. She was a very good teacher. She always had questions about the classroom. She was interested in what was going on in a classroom and asked me very intelligent questions about teaching.
One more thing about her. At that time, a bonus was given in cash. It was in Kanda, KIFL. We foreigners, of course, are not used to having any cash, on carrying cash around. So I just made it to the first bank to put the bonus from Mrs. Sano in the bank.（2/6）
Contact: Kimiyo WATANAE
PR department / Sano Educational Foundation
Telephone: +81-33258-5837
http://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/
Photographer: Hideki SHIOZAWA
http://www.shiozawahideki.com/