Letters from Overseas No. 2:

By Yukiko Isaka

Eng. Dept. Graduate 2001

Imagine a girl relaxing on a lounger by the white sandy beach looking over the sapphire-like lagoon, and listening to the breeze rustling through the palm trees. This is the Maldives, one of the places which attracts numerous tourists from all over the world with its remarkable coral atoll environment. The girl is me. I was teaching Japanese in Sapporo two months ago and now I am a Japanese teacher here in the Maldives.

It has been about two months since I came here. Before I came here, I was teaching Japanese at a Japanese language school in Sapporo for almost three years. Still, it is uneasy to teach the course here, because everything is very different from what I have experienced in the last three years. For instance, people here do not need to learn the writing system, such as Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. They do not need much vocabulary, but special terms only for service in hotels, shops or restaurants. And there are not many varieties of Japanese textbooks for such situations, especially for the beginners, so I have to make up my own teaching materials for class. Also, as my contract says, I must work at the front desk as well. This is my first experience of working in a hotel and there are many things to learn. So far, it seems like everyday is another challenge, but I believe it will be a great experience for me in many ways.

The republic of the Maldives is a small Islamic nation of about 270,000 people. The language is Dhivehi, but in the resorts and the capital city of Male, most of the people speak English. I found that the local people are shy, but once you get to know them they are very friendly. The country comprises some 1,190 tiny islands, which are situated to the south west of Sri Lanka on the equator. Out of this incredibly large number of islands, only 200 islands are inhabited, with 88 islands adapted as resort islands. Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa is one of them, and is especially known as one of the finest resorts in the Maldives. And that is where I am working. My position is a Japanese teacher and Japanese Guest Relations Officer, which you could say is quite a unique situation.

As the number of Japanese tourists is growing year by year, it has become a very important issue for the company to have staff who speaks Japanese in the resort. They of course have had Japanese staff for many years, but for the purpose of improving service, they have decided to have a Japanese language instructor to enable the hotel staff to communicate with Japanese guests in Japanese.

In this resort, we have many kinds of marine sports such as parasailing, water skiing, surfing, and wind-surfing, and so on. Other than such marine sports, you will see in the guidebooks and magazines that the Maldives is one of the best places for diving. You will be fascinated by the wide variety of fish in the crystal clear water. Unfortunately, however, according to statistics, the Maldives will sink into the ocean in 50 years due to global warming. We may not be able to do anything to prevent this sad geological disaster, but I really hope that these beautiful islands will stay forever the way they are. So, why donﾕt you visit the Maldives as soon as possible, possibly on your honeymoon. I'll be waiting to greet you.