By Haruo Akino
Every year, the English department holds an English study tour overseas in the summer vacation in a class called "British and American studies." We usually have the tour in August, but this year it was postponed until September because of the influence of the SARS epidemic in the spring. Twenty eight students took the tour to the U.S.A. lead by Mr. Hideto Hamada and Mr. Phillip Radcliffe. The schedule was from Sep. 1 to 27. We spent 19 days in Boston and the last week in New York, Washington D.C. and Las Vegas. I would like to tell you about Boston.
In Boston, each of us stayed with his/her host family. We studied at a small English school called English Language Center (ELC), which was across the street from Prudential Center in the central part of Boston. The school had about only fifty students because most summer vacations had finished in most countries. Half of the students were us, and the other half were the people from other foreign countries. We had "Grammar" and "Conversation" classes in the morning on the weekdays.
On the first day of school, we had our English level checked and we were divided into six groups of less than ten students. I joined the highest classes of both grammar and conversation. There were three Japanese out of eight students in the grammar class and only one Japanese out of ten students in the conversation class. The first impressions of the classes were that both of them were being held in a really relaxed atmosphere. In the class, students asked questions related to what the teacher explained with a textbook. Also, the teacher put questions to students and they answered them. This is how the students and the teacher deepened their understanding of each other.
"Conditional sentences" was the theme during the first week of the grammar lessons. I didn't feel this topic was so difficult because I had studied it a lot before. "Articles," the theme for the second week, was quite difficult for me because I hadn't studied it hard before. Therefore, the students from other countries said their opinions before I spoke almost all the time. I really felt it was difficult to express my thoughts.
Since there were students from all over the world, like Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Korea for example, their English pronunciation and accents were incorrect in many different ways. First, I had a lot of difficulties understanding their conversations. However, as I got used to them gradually, I was happy that I could smile at their sense of humor. It was a really good experience for me to study English in a different environment than I have before this.
Since the afternoons were basically free I went to Harvard University, Boston Museum, Whale watching and Duck tour (seeing the city sights by a landing craft which has been remodeled like the ones used in World War �). I had lots of fun playing basketball with the students at ELC. I also enjoyed a night view in Boston by glancing over from the top of Prudential Center, and watching a Major League Baseball game of the Boston Red Sox. I am really satisfied with everything in Boston.
On Saturdays, we Satsudai students chartered a bus. On the first Saturday, we went to Plymoth, which is a very important historical place in the U.S. history. We visited a village called Plymoth Plantation, which reproduced the life in the Pioneering era. I talked to the volunteers who were in the costumes of that era, and I came in touch with the cultures in the early years of America. Next, we went to the harbor and got on the ship called Mayflower�,which is a replica of the Mayflower, the ship which brought about 100 pioneers from Britain in 1620. It is a floating museum now.
The next Saturday, we went to Concord. We carefully observed the lifestyle of 17th century New England at Concord Museum. After that, we visited Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott, the author of "Little Women" lived. I was impressed by everything I saw in the house and I felt that my heart was healed by the fascinating things.
I had a lot of good memories during my homestay. First, there was a little mistake when I called my host mother, Jessie Beaubrun, just before going to her home. She had thought that I was a girl until I called her. She was puzzled to know the fact that I was a boy. She agreed to accept me after she and the person in charge of the homestay negotiated for a few minutes. Finally, when I arrived at her home with a lot of apprehension, she and her boyfriend were there. At the moment I saw them, their warmhearted smiles eased my anxiety and fatigue. From that moment on we had a friendly chat and we enjoyed talking about various kinds of things.
Jessie's house was in a quiet residential area called Allston. It took 30 to 40 minutes to get to ELC using bus and subway from there. Jessie had just gotten a master's degree and began working a new job, so she was very busy everyday. Still, she gladly took care of me. I would like to give my greatest thanks to her.
I talked to her boyfriend, Kevin Peterson, many times as well. He told me some serious jokes with a grave face, so I felt thrilled to listen to them. One night, when I talked to him seriously, he said, "You know, we all get a little depressed about things sometimes. Really, being depressed is a part of life. And the irony is that life wouldn't be 'life' if we didn't have the ups and downs. The important thing is to not let yourself stay down. Always get back up." These words impressed my heart strongly.
On the last night of my homestay, the three of us ate out. On the way back home, Jessie said, "It was the first experience for me to host somebody. I felt it was a great pleasure having you." I appreciate her deep affection very much. If I could have the opportunity to visit Boston again, I hope to see her again as a "friend."
I do thank all the schoolmates on a trip and everyone who supported this 27-day-trip, and that I could return home full of great pleasure and with no accident. I want to take all the precious memories of the trip to heart as the motive to study English from now on. Also, I will never forget the things I experienced in the tour and I will remember them as treasures in my life.