By Haruo Akino

Mr. William Jones taught at Sapporo University (SU) from April 2000 to March 2004, after teaching at Hokkaido University (Hokudai), where he is a professor emeritus, for 16 years, and at Hokkai Gakuen University for five years. He can't teach at undergraduate level from this April because he has reached the retiring age. But he will continue to teach at the SU graduate school. He has taught Advanced Writing: he asked his students to translate some newspaper articles, and by correcting those he showed the students various ways of writing in English; English Literature: he read poems and short extracts from novels very carefully and showed us how to read between the lines of the text; Children's Literature: by reading "Peter Rabbit" and "Winnie-the-Pooh" chorally with his students, he demonstrated English rhythm and stress functions and interpreted those books' concepts; Seminar: he studied English poetry by focusing on performance; Anglo American Studies: he taught his students about Britain through culture, history, politics, sports, and the influence of place. I took three of his classes and, in every class, he was always putting his heart into teaching. We interviewed him and he told us a number of things about his life, especially the teaching in Japan.

Mr. Jones was born in Hereford, a city that lies near the border between England and Wales. He was interested in Shakespeare so that he majored in English Literature at Cambridge University. After he graduate in 1956, he taught for some twenty years at Shrewsbury School, one of England's greatest "public" schools. At schools like Shrewsbury, boys enter at the age of 13 and leave, to go on to university, at the age of 18. Then, in 1978, he entered the graduate school of Edinburgh University, where he majored in Applied Linguistics. While he was at the university, he met three Japanese overseas students, perhaps by destiny. He also read in a newspaper that Hokudai was looking for a teacher of English. His Japanese friends strongly recommended him to go: "Hokkaido is just the place for you." That news made Mr. Jones want to work in Japan. At that time, 1979, Mr. Jones had little information about Hokkaido, and he hadn't been there, but he went to London for an interview and was chosen to teach at Hokkaido University. Before he moved to Japan, he discussed this significant decision with his mother, and whether or not he should take the post. She supported his decision: "You said you wanted to go to Japan. Go to Japan!" His mother died at the age of 91, in 1989. A year before her death, she said "If when you come back to England next time, you find that I have fallen off my perch, I don't want you to grieve, I don't want you to be sorry. I've had a long life. I've had a good life. Now I'm going to bed. Good night." That was her good bye to him.

When Mr. Jones came to Hokkaido in 1979, he felt that Japanese people are kind and friendly, so he was happy in his daily life. When he had only been in Hokkaido for two weeks, he was walking through Hokudai farm from the foreigners' lodgings to his office, where he met first or second year students walking in pairs in a line with a teacher. One little boy saw Mr. Jones, left the line, took Mr. Jones' hand, and walked along besides him, holding his hand. Then Mr. Jones cried, and was very moved. Although Mr. Jones was a foreigner and a stranger to the boy, the boy did this wonderful thing. The boy didn't say anything; Mr. Jones didn't either. Mr. Jones felt his warmth and it was a very important experience for him.

Mr. Jones thinks that Hokkaido has an attractive atmosphere and "I feel that I am at home. When I was in England, I never traveled very much. But I love to walk around Sapporo so that I have been everywhere in Sapporo. Nowadays, Makomanai Park and Tsukisamu Park are my favorite places to walk around. Also, I am familiar with Hakodate. I have written a book about Hakodate. I have also interviewed and written about craftsmen and craftswomen living in many parts of Hokkaido. (Published in Northern Lights, the magazine of Joy International, Obihiro.) I don't want to go back to England because I have nothing left in that country. I wish to sleep quietly in the Cemetery for foreigners in Hakodate when I finish my life."

One of the things Mr. Jones has found through teaching at Japanese universities is that the attitudes of the students changes depending on whether they are in the class or outside the class. In other words, they lose their personalities during the class but they become human beings when the class is over. When Mr. Jones taught in Hokkaido for the first time, he thought, "Why do my students hate me?" But his colleagues told him, "They love you." From that time, he learned to read the students' faces through the masks they were wearing in the class; but he found it very difficult to do this at first.

He also said "I was very disappointed to learn that Japanese people tend to avoid 'giving.' I like to watch small children with their mothers, but it's sad that once they enter school, they seem to lose their spontaneity and openness. Although the Ministry of Education probably knows this, they have to educate the students to value 'Harmony' and 'Sameness' to adjust the Japanese society. I wonder if it may have something to do with the passive constructions of the Japanese language. I find, too, that many Japanese think that if you give something, you will lose something in return. However, I believe that to give yourself, to sacrifice yourself and to be creative must be an extremely significant way of living and that, as Juliet said, the more you give the more you have to give."

"In Britain, you are educated to express yourself from childhood, sometimes too much. When I was teaching at Shrewsbury Schools, even the first-year students showed their effort very actively, so that I felt teaching was very exciting. I regret that I haven't been successful at exchanging ideas in classes here, which is what I wanted to achieve. I regret this because I can always discover new ideas on being stimulated by ideas and questions from students."

"My advice to students is 'boys and girls, be ambitious.' I don't mean ambitious for money or power. I mean ambitious always to do your best: you must show 150% effort always in everything you do. And be conscious of the importance of each day, since each day may be the last day of your life."

"From now on, I hope to teach at the SU graduate school for three more years, and continue to write books. My hope is to be always active. As a teacher, I don't want to lose the pleasure of 'being an actor' in the classroom. I will hope never to forget to love my students and my work."

You can clearly see what Mr. Jones' personality is in any part of this interview, so I'm impressed by that. But I consider one thing, which should be Mr. Jones' last message for us. Although he received kindness from the elementary school student and was impressed by the child's pure mind, that pureness will be buried in society as schools raise children simply to become average Japanese who are unable to put his/her opinion forward

He grieves over what happens in the classroom, too. Even though Mr. Jones tries to exchange questions and opinions with his students, they remain quiet and polite. He feels regret that so many students are just memorizing what their teachers explain to them to get credit for graduating the school and never think for themselves.

So he definitely wants Japanese children to grow up without losing their pureness and honesty, yet to be active in studying by themselves in the first place and to learn how to talk things over with their teachers. What do you think about Mr. Jones hope? I wish to say, "OK I understand you Mr. Jones," from the bottom of my heart.

Whenever I meet Mr. Jones, he always welcomes me with a kind, warmhearted smile, making me feel happy to visit him. I hope the rest of his teaching career at the SU graduate school will be full of pleasure and happiness, and I hope he will continue to remain healthy.