Testimony – Ken Ikeda

0 comments // Categories: Sharing // Wednesday May 11th, 2011

[A condensed and modified version of this will appear in a forthcoming newsletter issue of the Christian English Language Educators Association (CELEA) published in the U.S.]

Ken Ikeda

JET 1987-1993; Department of English Studies, Otsuma Women’s University, Tokyo

1. How am I connected with the world of English language teaching?

I fell into the profession. I was working on a joint Master’s in Japanese history and library science when my history professor recommended me to go to Japan in 1987 in what was the first year of the JET Program. My first posting was as an ALT in Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture working with three junior high schools. Shy by nature, I viewed English teaching as an excellent conduit to help me develop an extroverted self. Yet I was physically assaulted several times by unruly students and the schools took no action to reprimand the offenders. When two years later I transferred to Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture to an education center, I was quite depressed and very angry. I could bottle up my frustrations while assisting in seminars for teachers, but could not trust myself to be close to students.

At a dinner with Japanese English teachers who had participated in an overseas stay program which my mother sponsored, I met with a teacher who I knew was a fervent Catholic. After he heard about my troubles, he told me, “You know what to do. Forgive them just as Jesus did on the cross. These students do not know what they have done.” I protested that it wouldn’t do any good as they were several prefectures away. But together with that teacher I carried out that prayer of forgiveness and was freed from the memories that had kept me in thrall. It was good timing as well, since the following year I met my future wife.

After two years at the education center I moved to Nagano City for my 5^th year to be placed in a base school, then for my 6^th and final year was moved to the head education office of the prefecture (shidoka). However, all my years on the program was not going to guarantee me a career, so I was motivated to enroll in an intensive 5-week EFL teaching certificate course with Cambridge Assessment sponsored by the JET Program at the time. At the same time, the Lord enabled me to experience both the highs and lows of working in the prefectural headquarters; after my employment as an ALT ended I was given a part-time job in the office which paid approximately only half of the JET salary! It was a grim wake-up call to the realities of working in Japan outside the program umbrella.

The Cambridge certificate, however, opened doors: I was hired to teach part-time at a junior college (where I had been turned down the year before without the certificate). Furthermore, it qualified me to be employed as a foreign instructor at a national college of technology (kousen). During my contract I enrolled in a MA.TESOL program with Teachers College Tokyo and commuted frequently on weekends and summers to Tokyo – a commute greatly aided by the opening of the Shinkansen for the Nagano Olympics.

In 1999 I graduated with the Masters in TESOL and moved down to Yokohama where I spent about ten years teaching at several universities in the Tokyo area. The Lord miraculously opened the doors two years ago to a full-time position at a women’s college in the heart of Tokyo. There I teach English skill courses, an upper-division seminar focusing on ethnic studies and observation techniques, and an academic writing course to graduate students, as well as provide guidance to undergraduate thesis writing in English. Besides teaching, I am able to have impact on students throughout their college years in homeroom sessions, a study abroad program, and other extracurricular activities.

2. What has been your Christian experience in Japan?

The Lord has provided me churches to attend throughout my sojourn in Japan, even when it took over an hour by train and bus at one time. I joined a meeting of Christian JETs at a midyear Renewers conference in 1988 which became the Christian Support Group (forerunner of JCF). In 1991 I took the post of national coordinator. I got married at Megumi Chalet in Karuizawa where later I helped organize the first retreat for Christian JETs. Afterwards I stayed in touch with subsequent leadership groups till I started teaching at universities. It was rather funny that my first home after my marriage was in the church in Nagano where I and my wife attended – once our prefectural AJET meeting was held in the church sanctuary! For the past seven years My wife and I have been attending a Japanese Evangelical Alliance (Domei) church in Yokosuka and earlier this spring we bought an apartment within walking distance from the church.

One key verse for me is Hosea 10:12 – “Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you.” This verse sums up what I have come to accept as God’s directive these recent years. Sow, reap, break up; these verbs strike me as acts of cultivating my mind into rigor so that I am able to conscientiously seek the Lord’s call to save souls. Past is the time when I could concentrate on just teaching, but seek the Lord for vision within a secular and quite sheltered university where some students are given nil exposure to the gospel.

3. Is there a relevant joy or challenge that I am experiencing?

I am still having difficulty adjusting to constant demands on my time which envelop the overall concerns of the university beyond the classroom and leave scarce time to conduct research. My biggest personal challenge is tackling the inadequacies of my Japanese language ability. Hitherto I could rely on my speaking skills but I am now expected to write reports in Japanese as well. Currently I take weekly lessons at a Japanese language school. I believe these challenges are honing me to call on the Lord by the minute to tap on His vast reservoirs of blessings, discernment and strength. He has also sustained me mightily through my wife in a blessed 18-year marriage coupled with a very supportive local church.

4. Are there individuals related to English language teaching that have influenced me and/or my teaching?

During my MA TESOL studies at Teachers College Tokyo I was blessed to take an introductory course in applied linguistics from Thomas Scovel, who came as a visiting professor and awed the class with his thorough explication of the discipline while sharing his Christian faith with aplomb. Dr. Scovel was born in China whose parents were missionary doctors later held in a Japanese POW camp. After finishing his PhD in linguistics from University of Michigan he and his wife served as missionaries in Thailand for seven years. Although a giant in the field of psycholinguistics, he is an exceedingly humble and gentle person. In his homespun manner he told our class that when he was first accepted as a guest lecturer in China he brought with him two boxes of books. One box which contained psycholinguistics textbooks was barred because it had the word ‘psychology’. Someone asked what was in the other box. He answered, “Bibles.”

Another individual is my father. For a long time I concealed from my friends who he was because he is basically illiterate in English, having not learned the language due to wartime (in fact, I learned this summer he didn’t even finish junior high school because he was drafted into the Japanese imperial army). He was born in Japan but spent his youth in northeastern China (what was known as Manchukuo under Japanese occupation). He escaped from a Soviet POW camp after WW2 ended, which enabled him to enter the U.S. later as a war refugee. There as a farmhand in the fields of California he was led to Christ by a Japanese evangelist. His quiet but lifelong trust in Christ has showed me that a bedrock faith is far more precious than language ability or an education. This past summer I and my wife accompanied him to the cities where he spent his teenage days in China. A great attribute of his is the ability to let things go. Just as Mom went to be with the Lord 5 years ago, he could take her clothes to the Salvation Army and discard all her books, he accepted how much China has modernized in removing its landmarks created by the Japanese occupation.