A Racinian in Japan: `I've learned some big things here'

By Rachel Campbell

Sunday, January 23, 2005 2:07 AM CST

Joanne Eifler, a Racine native who is living and working in Japan, has been documenting this career move in a series of e-mails to her family and friends since January 2004. These e-mails cumulatively form a body of writing that illustrates, in great detail and even greater humor, what life is like for a gaijin (foreigner) in the Land of the Rising Sun. Eifler was kind enough to share these observational e-mails with The Journal Times; and The Journal Times is pleased to share them with our readers, as well. In addition to the passages included in this story, you can read Eifler's e-mails at:

www.journaltimes.com and further Eiflerisms at her blog: ayearorsoinjapan.blogspot.com Another day,

another 103 yen Jan. 25, 2004: "The first half hour of the meeting was very professional. Through Rie (serving as interpreter), Manager asked me what things I was unhappy about, how could they avoid this in the future, and what they could do to make me happier. ... At one point the manager put her fingers to her forehead and started massaging her temples while uttering the equivalent of `what to do, what to do,' and closed her eyes. Rie and I both stared at her and then, just like Meredith Baxter Birney in a Lifetime television drama, she started to cry. ... This episode lasted for about a minute then it was back to business. ... After talking to some other English teachers in Japan, I have realized that it is not just a business tactic, but a very common business tactic (among conversation schools). If I hadn't been so confused and amused, it may have worked."

Eifler is no stranger to travel. She studied in Seville, Spain, while an undergrad and spent another two months playing the tourist in Europe: She has also spent time in Costa Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Morocco. But a layover in Japan during a family trip to the Philippines when she was 12 got her hooked; and by the time she'd reached her high school years at Walden School, she knew she would live there one day.

"I intended on going after college," Eifler wrote in an e-mail interview, "but the timing was not right. It was a goal that hung over my head until I was 29, at which point I thought, I'd better do this now or I never will."

Eifler joined the AEON Corp. of Japan, one of the "big four" eikawa (conversation schools) that recruits Americans to teach English overseas, and was set up with her visa, an apartment, and a job. Wanting to plunge even further into Japanese culture, however, Eifler eventually broke with the company, quit her job, and pursued her own path.

This led - quickly, as fortune would have it - to her current position as an assistant English teacher with a public junior high school in Nagoya, Japan. "This basically means I am the fun teacher," she wrote. "I play games with the kids and give them a chance to practice their English."

Although, she added, "I've found my naughty junior high and high school days' karma coming back to bite me in the butt time and time again."

Learning Japanese

Feb. 16, 2004: "Before the movie started, Megumi (a friend) told me a story about how she traveled to Los Angeles and was so surprised at how big the snacks were. I agreed. Food is just big in the U.S., snack food, movie food, meal food, it's all big, yep. She then told me she was very surprised at how people laughed and were loud in the theatres. Again, I agreed. Americans are loud, no two ways about it. Once again, in listening to Megumi's story I forgot that Japan is not a direct in-your-face culture. ... It's quite common for warnings and advisements to be embedded into casual story telling. But they are so good at the story telling and I am so bad at fully comprehending such stories, that to me they are mostly... just stories. So, what I got out of the story that Megumi told me was: America is a big, loud place. Sure is. What she was SAYING to me in a weaving silk kind of way was ... `Joanne, people here are really really quiet in movie theatres. No one talks during the films, no one cries during the films and no one laughs during the films, even if the film is funny. ... Do whatever the you want, but I am warning you.'"

Eifler studied Japanese while a student at UW-Milwaukee, and currently works with a tutor "once or twice a week" to keep her language skills sharp. Having moved out of her AEON-issued apartment when she quit her AEON-issued position, she now has the added linguistic benefit of living "with a Japanese family that speaks no English;" not to mention working "in a junior high school and I am the only foreigner there. In short," she wrote, "I've learned by throwing myself into intimidating situations and (by) occasionally studying."

She will be doing just that for another four months, and hopefully typing it all up for the benefit of her family, her friends, and her hometown: Eifler will return to the U.S. in April, having fulfilled a life-long dream. She'll have lived in Japan for one year and seven months.

"Japan does have its problems, just like the U.S. or any other country," she wrote. "But outside of all my frustrations, homesickness, (and) realizing that I am very much an American, I've learned some big things here. I've learned how to notice details, how to appreciate the moment, how to see the beauty in small things, how silence can tell you more about a person than filling the air with words, the importance of family and friends and how much I miss my own."

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