Elizabeth Butler

From Lizzy Three years on from graduating, Hanami sensei wrote me a short note in Japanese on Facebook. My initial thought was ‘oh no, I won’t be able to read this,’ but I still could, hurrah! And a good thing too! I wrote back a message about what I’d been up to, which seems a bit random, but thus is the life of a Japanese major … After a year getting a master’s in Japanese, a year full of translating passages out of obscure Buddhist texts out of old books in dark, quiet libraries, I am now teaching high school in Manchester, England on a program a little like Teach for America. Not quite as quiet! I’m teaching Science (I majored in Biology too), but last year I ran an after-school Japanese club and the kids really wanted to learn Japanese! This year I’m tutoring one of the girls who was most interested in learning Japanese, and I might see if I can get her sponsored to a local Japanese class. But mostly, my days are full of kids, trying to cram some information in them and trying to keep them from killing each other. I’m back to the U.S. in the Fall, and probably going back to what I had originally intended to do – go to medical school. Fwew! Perhaps I’ve got the wanderlust if not the Zen of Basho.