Interview
Helene Uchida
Helene Uchida is the founder of the Little America schools
and has been an educator, both in Japan and around the
world, for more than twenty years.
Helene Uchida graciously accepted our request for an
interview in mid-June, 2002. She spoke with ELT News editor
Mark McBennett.
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MM: Many people are surprised when I tell them I've been
in Japan for thirteen years. But you've been here much longer
than that. Can you give us a bit of background information
about yourself and how you ended up in Japan?
HU: I came to Japan to study judo. My original plan was
to stay here two years. But at Waseda university, as fate
would have it, I fell in love with my judo teacher, Sohei
Uchida. We were married in the Waseda dojo because we felt
the judo dojo was our true "Nakodo." After that we went
to Athens, Greece, where my husband taught judo for a year.
We were blessed with our son, Soshi, in Athens. We returned
to Japan 23 years ago upon receiving word of my father-in-law's
death. My husband had to return to Fukuoka to continue his
father's judo dojo. Upon our arrival in Fukuoka, he to his
hometown and me to a new city, our life together in Japan
truly began.
When, why and how did you set up the Little America
English Schools?
In 1979, upon our return from Greece, three judo students'
mothers asked me to teach English to their children. I was
quite hesitant about it because I had an infant son to care
for in a foreign country and, frankly speaking, I had no
experience and zero confidence about teaching children.
I initially declined their requests, but the mothers kept
pushing and I finally agreed to give it a try. Since the
students were so excited and animated, I enjoyed it much
more than I had imagined. Word got out that the classes
were popular and eventually enrollment increased. When we
reached 110, we decided to rent a building and officially
open a school. That was when we decided upon the name Little
America.
What teaching approaches do you take at Little America?
This is my favorite question because this is what we are
all about. When I initially studied judo from my husband,
he told me, "You can't do judo alone; you need a partner."
He also said that since one cannot do judo alone, one must
respect one's partner. In essence, because one has a partner,
one can do judo. If one's partner is stronger, then one
learns from the partner. If one's partner is weaker, then
the stronger partner helps the weaker one. This was a revelation
for me because I had always been a very independent person;
I had never really thought much about partnership or "give
and take." This philosophy changed my life in terms of my
adaptation to judo (I became a blackbelt), my international
marriage and my English teaching in Japan.
My students cannot speak English alone; they need a partner.
So our curriculum, classes and lessons are all geared to
interaction between two people. Just like judo, our classes
encourage constant practice, warm-ups, trial and error challenges,
question and answer scenarios between partners. We believe
in orchestrating activities whereby our students can experience
English with each other. Even though we don't say it directly,
our students know inherently that their partners deserve
respect, namely because they could not do any of these fun
activities alone.
You have experience working in education in the US and
Greece as well as Japan. What kind of contrasts and similarities
have you found?
In the States, during one school year, we could cover
the short story, the novel, drama, speech, grammar, spelling,
vocabulary, poetry, etc. Along the way, we made countless
discoveries about each other and life. Teaching English,
through literature and communication, was a wonderful way
to connect with students. I bonded with many of my students
and am still in touch with several of them today.
Teaching English as a second language in Greece was invigorating
because Europeans are aggressive about speaking English
and eager to learn. I was amazed at how quickly people picked
up English there and put it to use right away. Even children
and uneducated people could speak English with little effort.
Teaching English as a foreign language in Japan is very
challenging. It took me some years to realize that the techniques
I used in America with native speakers and the methods I
used in Greece with highly motivated students did not work
in Japan. Therefore, I spent a few years creating lessons
based on trial and error in order to study my students'
reactions in my quest to find out what worked best for them.
Now that I have mastered my trade, I can truthfully say
I adore my students and love my work. I owe any success
that I have achieved in Japan to my students, for they have
been my true mentors.
Do you prefer teaching children or university students?
I'll take children any day of the week. The rewards are
immediate because of their ability to learn quickly and
laugh at their own mistakes.
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