I got paced by an old man

I got a phone call today at about 2:00 pm from the YMCA that I teach at; they told me that a student joining my class for the day for a trial class. I was intrigued and refreshed that a new student would be joining. I ran experiments through out the afternoon, breaked at 5:30 pm to grab a bite, returned to the lab and started working on a homework assignment for class tomorrow. At 6:50, I was off to my evening job, teaching English.

I stepped into the office that day to grab my folder. One of the receptionists came to me and told me that the student was in his 50's. I came into the class about 3 minutes late today, the other students were in the hall chatting on a sofa and inside the room, I would find a greyed old man sitting in a corner with his head down... isolated in an empty room.

I called him out and asked him to join us. He was hesitant and shy at first but he finally made his way to the table to where all the students sat. I decided that we would introduce ourselves to him. I asked my other students to start with their introductions... they went on to tell him about their hobbies and work. The time came to the old man, whose family name is Onodera to introduce himself. At first I thought he was a total beginner because of his shyness... how wrong I was.

Words came gushing out from this old man, like water from a gyser. He went on to tell us that the things that he did in his spare time were not hobbies but were his "pass-time" activities. He went on to discuss how "hobbies" are sort of an amateur activity where one does things just for fun. This man does things and gets really good at them. I was rather amazed that he understood the nauances of English to that degree. He also told me to explain the difference of a "pass-time" and a "hobby" while telling me, "no offence"-- I was amused.

I asked him what did he do for a living? He told me that he worked as a construction worker, more specifically as a "hard-hat". How does a construction worker get good at English? Would a construction worker have any sort of interest in English as all usually? I didn't think so. I was rather confused.

After a short period of conversation, he would reveal to us that he had only studied English for half a year, starting in December and that he was 73 and that he was born in the 1930's and that he'd never been out of the country before. My students whom have been studing Japanese for more than 5~6 years are not even half as good as this man's English. Enthrallemnt ensued.

We would touch on topics on such as politics and history. He would make rather thought provoking comments, for example that he was glad that the Americans occupied Japan instead of the Russians (who were part of the Allied forces)... because Japan would probably not be anywhere as near as economically well off had the Russians occupied Japan.

He would go on and tell me how he's dropped out of school after Junior High because times were hard and he needed to work to earn a living. His regret is that he was never able to return to school and continue learning. Apparently, he studied German for 26 years and that German and English are similar (they have the same roots as he would tell me). He would tell me that when he was 14 and he met the G.I.'s ("government issues" ie. US government forces... an acronym that I even didn't know) and was fascinated with their English.

For 74 years old, the man is remarkably intelligent. In 6 months, his English out paces the Japanese I've learned over 4 years. I would not say that I've been put to any shame... more importantly, I've been inspired.