FME and I
Yoshiko
Iwamoto
It was one muggy afternoon in July,
1990.
I was in the dining room of my son's
special school. We mothers took turns helping the handicapped students
have lunch. After finishing my duties, Ms. Motoko Emoto, who was one of the
mothers, came up to me and said, "I am studying English at the Chiba Chuo
Community Center every Friday. Why don't you come and join
us?" I had come back from San Francisco in 1988 and had been
thinking about studying English again. But I had been busy and hadn't
found any classes. I had read the newspaper and had written letters in
English but I felt I needed someone to talk to in English. Motoko's
proposal sounded nice to me.
I joined the FME class in September.
The teacher was George, who came from Los Angeles and was married to a Japanese
woman. At that time studying English was so popular that FME was always
full of members. I had a good time studying English after a two year
break. Soon FME became a part of my life.
Meanwhile, my two sons were growing up
and approaching their adolescence. One day I accompanied my 12 year old
handicapped son on his field trip. When we entered the museum. my son's
face turned pale and suddenly he began to slap other students on the
head. Usually he was calm and cheerful, so everyone around him was
shocked and tried to stop him. His teacher was so upset that she slapped
him on the cheek too. Somehow he calmed down but it was the beginning of
a nightmare for our family. From that day he became very unstable,
violent and refused to go to school. He also developed insomnia.
His bad condition continued for a long time.
Taking care of him demanded a lot of
me. I was almost burnt out. But
fortunately I could keep attending FME class because my husband stayed home on
Friday morning. As he worked for a university, he had more free time on
his hands than people working for a company. He took care of our son
while I was in class. In FME class I was released from my burden of daily
life for a while. Sometimes I talked about my problems in English in
class and surprisingly I found myself feeling better and it was easier than
talking in Japanese.
Also I remember that I talked about
our "Father & Son Story" in class. My older son had a fight
with his father when he was 17 years old. From then he ignored his father
for almost a year. He talked to me but not to his father. As soon as my
husband came home, he would go to his room with his meal. But on his 18th
birthday he said to me abruptly, "I am an adult from now on."
And to our surprise, he poured beer into his father's glass. Then
he began to speak to his father as if nothing had happened. This is one
of the happiest memories of my life.
For me, FME has been not only an ESL
circle, but also a door to the world. Once a week I left my stress behind
and enjoyed my own time.
Because I am always called by my
family name here in Japan, being called by my first name in class makes me feel
independent.
Time flies and I have been here for
22 years. I have been taught by 8 teachers
and have studied with so many students. I am thankful that I have learned
a lot from them all.
My older son got married two years
ago and the younger one became stable. Now both of them are living their
own lives. Recently I asked myself, "What if it had not been for
FME?" Maybe I could not have survived.
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