Better yet, make that fractured.

Back in 1973, I was studying Japanese at the CCH (Church College of Hawaii), preparing to head out to the then-Japan West mission (now Japan-Fukuoka).

Our greenie group had a Japanese native convert as an instructor, who was attending CCH as a student while earning a living on the side teaching us stupid "Americajins" how to communicate in grade-school Nihongo.

I admired his patience but, I tell ya, the guy was one of the most dour-faced, serious-minded grumps I had ever met (then again, maybe it was the language barrier).

He would constantly scowl at us in the classroom as he stood in front of the blackboard, barking commands for us to "mo ichi do" (repeat) the simple Japanese phrases he was attempting to drill into our hearts and heads.

One day, I was gazing out from my dorm room on the CCH campus and spotted this sensei of ours at some distance, walking along with his nose in a book.

All of a sudden, he completely disappeared, vanished from sight, went *poof*! I thought perhaps I had just witnessed a translated being being translated (not translated into Japanese but into another world).

I did a double-take, peered more intently out toward where I had just seen him walking along with his noggin deeply bowed before his studies, but he was nowhere to be spotted.

He came into class the next day sporting a bandage on his face. With the rest of the class observing our exchange, I told the instructor that I had seen him disappear from view and wondered what had happened to him.

Without so much as a crack of a smile, he said he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and fell into a hole at a construction site.

Sounds like one of those blindly obedient Mormons.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2010 05:47PM by steve benson.

I thought the end of the story was that he was really a jolly fellow. I have the impression that it is traditional for teachers to adopt a rather stern, barking style in Japan.

P.S. How neat that you were able to visit this interesting country.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2010 02:11PM by steve benson.