Introduction of Faculty and Staff

#Translations from Japanese will soon be ready for all the members.

Full-Time Instructors

Soichi Aoki （Associate Director）

センターに来てからもう15年以上経ってしまいました。センターに来たときには、まさに日本語教育の右も左も分からない状態でしたが、当時の先生方、学生のみなさんのお陰で、これまでやってくることができました。本当にセンターに育ててもらった気がしています。

専門は日本語教育、特に語用論、評価、コンピュータ利用学習等に興味があります。とはいっても、実は何にでも興味を持ってしまうタチで、大学の専門は数学（オペレーションズ・リサーチ）、興味は音楽、文学、その後の大学院でも専門は言語学、興味は言語哲学、記号論、語用論といった調子でした。現在でも、どちらかというと何でも屋ですが、最近は時間の有限さを強く意識するようになってきたので、できるだけよそ見をしないでマジメに勉強しなくては、と思っています。

趣味・興味はいろいろです。自転車（ＭＴＢで青木ヶ原の樹海を走るのは最高！）、読書（というか単に活字中毒）、映画、機械修理（車から傘まで）、電気（アマチュア無線技師だった）、現代芸術・音楽（昔、本気）、コンピュータ（もう四半世紀のおつきあい）、ビール（最近は量を意識的に減らしています）、ジャズ（学生時代は寝ても覚めてもジャズ）、イタリア料理（下手の横好き）、旅行（最近はなかなか行けない）、セキセイインコ（特に口元がかわいい）等ですが、最近は、昨年生まれた息子「海（かい）」のくるくると変化する表情を見るのが一番の楽しみです。(E-Mail)

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Tomotaro Akizawa

Hi, my name is Akizawa Tomotaro. The 2003-04 academic year marked my first year as a full-time instructor at the Center. Pleased to meet you!

Hailing from Yokohama!

Although my family has lived in Yokohama since my great-grandfather's generation, from junior-high school on I have always commuted to Tokyo. Being at the Center is nice because I finally have the opportunity to work close to home!

Undergraduate Thesis

Entitled, Natsume Soseki: Self-Centered Way of Life. Because there was no new scholarly merit and I took the liberty to write what I felt, it was disqualified as a valid essay. Reading it now, although I am ashamed by the essay itself, it is valuable because it accurately portrays my character (probably because I dedicated so much time writing it). If you are interested, this file can be downloaded as a Zip archive (1mb).

Master's Thesis

Entitled, An Analysis of Examples of "-Kurai" (minor corrections have been made since it was originally submitted). From a CD-ROM entitled, Shincho Library, 100 Works, I searched for all occurrences of the functional word "-kurai" and then analyzed their usage. More important than the content of the thesis was using the MacJPerl programming language to create a script that listed those occurrences (available as a Stuffit archive).

Role at the Center

My main responsibility is to organize the modern fiction class. Also I teach the literature class. I look forward to reading and discussing these works together, in Japanese. Because I'm not that well-versed in literary theory, I also look forward to being taught by you, the students--again, in Japanese! In addition, I'm in charge of creating the Center's website and making sure our computers run smoothly. If you have questions about the Macs, just ask. Reading and tinkering with computers are my two biggest hobbies (laughs).

Interests

Mountaineering, Jogging, Driving, Traveling, Music (Listening, Composing, and Performing)

Please forgive any tangents I may make during class (laughs).

(Translated from Japanese by Adam Lobel, class of 2003-2004)

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Tamaki Kono

Specialty & Interests:

Japanese

Hobbies:

Going to see Kabuki and theater. I'm especially a fan of Tamasaburo Bando.

Weak points

Drinking alcohol and singing Karaoke.

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Kiyomi Kushida

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Takashi Matsumoto （Program Cordinator）

M, a Japanese language instructor (anonymous), runs into F, a friend from his school days...

F: Hey, M? Is that you, M?

M: Oh, hey, F. Long time no see, how are you?

F: Oh, not bad. What are doing these days, M?

M: You mean work? Well I'm doing a little teaching.

F: Oh really? How are high schoolers these days?

M: Uh, no, I'm not teaching at a high school.

F: Junior high, huh? It must be pretty tough dealing with stuff like bullying.

M: Uh, no, it's not that, either.

F: Oh, I get it - elementary school. Hey, when the heck did you pick up your teacher's certificate?

M: What I'm trying to say is, I'm not teaching at a school like that, I'm a Japanese language teacher.

F: You mean as in teaching foreigners Japanese?

M: What other kind of Japanese language teacher is there?

F: Yeah, I suppose you're right... So where are your students from?

M: Well, they're mostly American or Canadian.

F: So your English has probably gotten pretty good then, huh?

M: Not really. I don't really use it.

F: Why not?

M: Well, for starters, all the students understand Japanese...

F: So what are you teaching, then?

M: Japanese.

F: But you just said --

M: Well, you know what I mean.

F: So you're teaching Japanese to people who know Japanese.

M: That's about the size of it.

F: You've kind of lost me.

M, the Japanese instructor, becomes melancholy as he considers the fact that he spent his college days with this jerk...

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Makiko Ohashi

出身

子どもの頃、父の仕事の関係で千葉、青森、神戸などで暮らしました。横浜にはもう２０年近く住んでいます。

専門

日本語教育学、政治（国際関係史）

趣味

読書。映画館や美術館に行くこと。山に登ること。

弱点

じゃんけん

何か一言

政治・経済を担当します。質問がある人や、政治や経済について（楽しく）議論したい人は、私の机まで。河童が目印です。

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Hiroko Otake（Instructional Coordinator）

Specialty & Interests

My focus in college and grad school was linguistics, Japanese language teaching, and theories of language acquisition. I'm also interested in cultural psychology. Since becoming a Japanese teacher, I've had a burning curiosity about all sorts of things, with an eye to becoming a modern Renaissance woman.

Hobbies

Making and eating good food. However, I really hate the clean-up afterwards. I'm also quite fond of doing nothing and spacing out. I've developed my own special technique in this area, actually. Basically, I pick a spot without too many cars and gaze about while wandering aimlessly. This has earned me the nickname, "Turtle Legs."

Weak points

While I'm actually doing something, I can concentrate, but when it comes down to it, I'm just plain lazy. Accordingly, I've been focusing all my efforts on getting by without doing things I don't like. It hasn't been working out too well, though.

A couple of comments

I'm a tough teacher, so if you want to be beaten into shape, please step right up. I've taught Japanese for more than ten years at colleges in North America and Islamic countries in the Middle East, so I have had some pretty odd experiences.

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Ari Sato

趣味

「小さな幸せ」探し

自慢

犬なみに働く鼻（ただし風邪のときは役立たず）

好きな音

水が流れる音

嫌いな物

お風呂場のカビ

学生に一言

人類学を担当することになりました。授業で何かとりあげて欲しいトピックがあれば、お早めにご相談ください。お待ちしてます。

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Tsukasa Sato

Hobbies, Interests

Kabuki: Before my child was born, I was so into kabuki that I would drop by the theater at least once a month. Nowadays it's hard to find time to go, but by planning my schedule to include the Center's twice- or thrice-yearly "Kabuki Tours", I can still look forward to the occasional performance. I also enjoy seeing plays, musicals, and classical arts other than kabuki.
Swimming: I've never been all that good at sports, but I'm not too bad at swimming, since that was the sport I did in my student days. I also like scuba diving. My dream now is to swim with dolphins, and to see some whales in real life. Other than this, I dabble in tennis and skiing with my husband, but I'm making no progress with either sport.

Children

I have one girl. She is currently studying "beginner-level Japanese." There are so many things I have only become aware of since having a child, things like products aimed at the juvenile market, the environment surrounding the modern child, day-care center administration, etc. I have become quite an informal expert on children's issues.

Culture

At the Center I supervise a class called "Culture and Society." In this class we examine comics, TV commercial, rituals, etc. from different angles, and discuss our many different observations. Sometimes "many" translates in practice into "too many" (to fit into the class hour, that is), but it's certainly never dull.

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Office Staff

Mieko Furuoya (Financial and Administrative Manager)

趣味

テニス−最後にラケットを握ったのはいつ？
旅行ー１週間とは言いません。３日でもいいから温泉でのんびりしたい！
読書ー最近、年のせいか、文字がかすんで見えるような....

何か一言

横浜生まれの横浜育ち。センターに入って感心したのは、下は２０歳から上は５０代まで、幅広い年齢層の学生が、非常に熱心に日本語の学習に取り組んでいることです。（私もセンターのような環境で勉強したなら、もう少し英語が上達したかも？）

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Junko Tanaka (Administrative Assistant)

I joined the Center in 1995. Although time has passed quickly, I've seen off over 300 graduates since then. In an addition to the regular program from September, the summer program has gotten more popular in the last couple of years, making a year in the office pass very quickly.

At the office I have an "ask us anything" attitude but the difficult and unusual questions asked by students often take some effort. I can't simply give an off-the-cuff answer to such earnest and sincere students. We have resolved to do whatever we can to support the students. Because of the innocent questions students ask, I am made to rethink and reexamine in a new way things that I wouldn't usually stop to notice. Through a mix of the students’ native languages and skilled Japanese I get to experience the joy of inter-cultural communication on a daily basis.

If you're serious about learning high-level Japanese, please join the IUC for Japanese Language Studies in Pacifico Yokohama on the waterfront in Minato Mirai.

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Chieko Yoshida (Student Coordinator)

学生からのあらゆる「？」に対応すべく、四方八方にアンテナを張り巡らせ、情報収集に日頃の努力を惜しまず…のつもりではいるものの、まだまだ修行が足りず、悪戦苦闘の日々。せめて正しい日本語を…と思いつつ、「まあ、いいか…」とつぶやけば、「真烏賊？」などど聞き直され…やれやれ。かくして厳しい学生係の毎日は続くのでありました。兎にも角にも、ドンと来い！

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