Kojima Nobuo’s The American School – A Review

The limited story, “The American College” by Kojima Nobuo gives a fairly humorous outlook on the fictional (but possible) account of many Japanese English instructors who have been pressured to take a look at a recently launched American college in Japan soon right after the end of World War II. The plot facilities about four major figures- Isa is the protagonist who has been forced to train English simply just mainly because he knows a few phrases and phrases but hates the language for the reason that he are unable to pronounce it effectively. Shibamoto is head of the Japanese procession traveling to the university (even though we do not know much about him as the narrator almost never provides us his level of view). Yamada is an overachieving suck-up who speaks English well plenty of to have on with the American troops and hence thinks himself far better than Isa (placing him in the posture of the antagonist), and Michiko is the only female in the group, who apparently adequate speaks English superior than Yamada. As their procession moves alongside to the American faculty, the reader has the possibility to see both Japanese and American cultural characteristics by the conversation in between United States troops driving by in their jeeps and the native individuals walking along, as effectively as the habits of American little ones at the college.

1 case in point of this would be how the Us citizens look to be brash and impatient in contrast with the Japanese and their means. For Occasion, Yamada has an encounter with an American soldier in a jeep who, when he finds that Yamada’s chief is running late for his appointment with the U.S. officers, throws his hands in the air and drives off stating sarcastically, “I am really very sorry to have stored you waiting”. This rushed, “ought to-be-on-time” attitude, verses the much more effortless-going mother nature of the Japanese appears to epitomize, if you will, a cultural difference between the west and the east.

One more occasion exhibiting distinctions in cultural traits happens afterwards. Isa and Michiko are within the college waiting in line for a tour when Michiko sees two learners holding arms in “mutual infatuation”. Michiko suggests, “Seem at those two over there- how disgusting!” which exhibits that either Michiko has never observed two amorous individuals maintain fingers ahead of, or that keeping fingers publicly was not a little something normally acknowledged in Japanese tradition for the duration of that time. Kojima Nobuo generally hints at these kinds of cultural rifts and does not usually appear outright with assertions to lampoon both society. In this way, he demonstrates tact in assuming that the reader is clever adequate to make his or her very own assumptions and judgments. When Michiko falls in her large heels and the Basic principle sees what has occurred, we know that he is the epitome of a smug, arrogant American as he states, “Ah indeed. The aged kamikaze spirit.”

In summary, “The American University” is a quick nicely-created, occasionally satirical tale that aids just one ponder a handful of of the several variations in cultural features in between Japan and the United States in the course of the stop of the 2nd Globe War.