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| Newsletter
No.84 |
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May
2006
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ESUJ Lecture "Come Come Babies & Go Go Babies" Lecture by Mr. Taketo Furuhata
ESUJ lecture in English was given by Mr Taketo Furuhata, formerly Vice President of ITOCHU Corporation, renowned English language expert from the business world and noted Hanshin Tigers fan, on Wednesday, April 26, from 6:30-8:00 at the Japan National Press Center, with 42 persons attending. The talk started with the English language theme song, "Come come everybody…" from Tadaichi Hirakawa's program "Come come English." The program began five-and-a-half months after the end of the war, on, February 1, 1946, at 6:00pm, on NHK radio. It was wildly popular and was to become the start of Mr. Furuhata's English learning. The war ended for him when he was a high school student in Matsumoto. When the occupation forces arrived and made an onsen hotel their headquarters, he surprised everyone by saying to a GI sentry "Hello. How old are you?" After returning to Tokyo, Furuhata-san gathered his friends and formed one of "Come Come Club" which were formed throughout Japan and named "Go Go Club" for their dream to go to America and had good relationship with Mr. Hirakawa. Some famous "international" Japanese were born among the "Come Come Babies" studying along with the program. After participating in Keio ESS, Furuhata-san picked up a "southern accent" while at the University of North Carolina and subsequently learned various different sorts of English while working as a trading company executive in Chicago and New York. Turning to professional baseball, He told us the reason why he became a Tigers supporter even though he has no connection to Osaka. He also touched upon many interesting views such as Tigers' scenario to the grand winner, several concrete proposals to make Japanese pro baseball more enjoyable. The question and answer session ranged from reminiscences about "Come Come…" to optimistic theories on Coach Nomura's coaching, with no end of entertaining topics to conclude the evening.
English Club
English Club held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 18 at the Japan National Press Club starting off with two-minute speeches by Mr. Kenji Ando on the topic of "Twisted English Translation" and Mr. Shuji Isshiki on the topic of "Dignity of a Country". Our guest speaker for the evening was Ms. Liisa Karvinen, Counsellor, Press and Culture, Embassy of Finland. Actually, her main work is as the international news anchor for Finland's TV channel one. Speaking in flowing English while showing actual figures and photos, Ms. Karvinen gave an easy-to-understand portrayal of Finland's current situation. As the most competitive country in the world economically and in the field of high tech, with high levels of welfare and education, Finland has a land size roughly the same as that of Japan but with a population of barely five million people, about the same as that of Hokkaido. Ms. Karvinen explained how it has been able to do this, thoroughly impressing the audience. With its aging society, insular mentality, shyness, and love of nature, Finns and Japanese have much in common, but there is complete transparency in government and almost no corruption. Primary school children learn both Finnish and Swedish from first grade, which are as different as Japanese and English, and start to learn study other languages from in third grade. Teachers' pay is low, but they are respected, and there are various support systems for raising children. All of this caused the scales to fall from the audience's eyes and led to a lively Q&A session about how Japan could avail itself of similar approaches.
The next meeting of English Club will take place on Tuesday, May 16 (6:30-8:30) at the Japan National Press Club (9th fl, Conference Room). Our guest speaker will be Mr. Russell Willis, Present of EigoTown.com.
12th ESUJ Takuwakai Luncheon: Mr. Shigeaki Saegusa
Takuwakai luncheons feature delicious cuisine and speakers that can seldom be heard elsewhere, which are held mainly for ESUJ supporting members. The 12th luncheon took place on Tuesday, May 9, at the Ark Hills Club with full seats. Our speaker was the composer Shigeaki Saegusa, speaking on the fascinating topic of "How Operas are Made". Mr Shigusa has composed many operas, but staging them is hugely expensive. He pointed out that there are expenses for rehearsals for an eighty-person professional chorus, as well as fees for the orchestra, famous singers, stage sets and so forth, demonstrating convincingly that it is an absolute necessity to be well-funded. To end his talk, Saegusa-san showed and commented on a portion of a video performance of his opera "Junior Butterfly", to be performed at the Puccini Festival this summer in Italy. Everyone was completely charmed.
Coming Events!
Sat. 10 June ESUJ Debate 2006 --Adults Debate Competition--
10:00-19:00 at International House of Japan (Kokusai Bunka Kaikan)
Tue. 27 June AGM & Lecture at International House of Japan
AGM: 18:00-18:30 Lecture: 18:30-20:00
Lecturer: Mr. Thomas Novohradsky
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For
further informaiton contact!
E-MAIL:esuj@esuj.gr.jp
Fujikage-Building
9th Floor, Motoakasaka 1-1-5
MInato-ku, Tokyo 107-0051
TEL: 03-3423-0970 FAX: 03-3423-0971
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