I love it when we get international news from our alumni! Today’s story is written by Carolyn Cole (class of 2007).

I keep something called a Nectar List which, instead of a Bucket List of things to do, is a list of things that you’ve already done that’s added extra sweetness to your life. A large chunk of items on that list are thanks to a VHS tape that my mother bought back in the early 90’s.

I am currently living in Japan, working for the Ibaraki Prefecture Board of Education as an English Specialist. It’s a fancy way of saying that I teach English as a Foreign Language. I have just finished up my third year of teaching at my assigned elementary school in the city of Tsuchiura, where I teach third and fourth grade students once a week and fifth and sixth grade students twice a week. The new school year started in April, which is cherry blossom season.

I graduated from MHS in 2007. When I was a student there, I participated in the fall plays and spring musicals, sang in the choir, tried out Forensics in my junior year, and took Japanese as my foreign language.

Growing up, my absolute favorite movie was (and still is) Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro—aka the aforementioned VHS— but since it was dubbed into English it was clear to my child brain that it was an American movie. It was in English, after all!

In my middle school years, Japanese was offered as a language subject along with German and Spanish. I had taken the required term of Japanese as a seventh grader, and one day we were shown the film in its original language in class. I was astonished to realize that the voices I had heard for years were in fact not the original voice actors. Later I went to the school library to look at books about Japan. My mind was absolutely blown to smithereens. Here was this movie that I had adored for years, and suddenly those elements to the story and the characters that had always intrigued me and raised questions— those elements had context. I was bitten by the Japanese bug, and there was no going back.

The more I read and learned about Japan, the more interested I was in continuing studying the language. I took Japanese up until partway through my sophomore year. Cl

asses at the high school had very few students; in my freshman year there were only nine of us. In the first half of my sophomore year I took it as an Independent Study class along with another student. When Mr. Bencke left the district to go teach

in Japan, the program was cut and I was unable to continue studying.

When I was applying to colleges, one of my requirements was that the school had to have a Japanese program. Luckily both of my parents’ alma maters had Japanese Language programs, as did the two other colleges I sent applications to. Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, ended up winning my vote and I spent three wonderful years on campus, and one amazing year studying abroad in Kyoto. After studying abroad, I realized how much of the country I still hadn’t explored and wanted to go back as quickly as I could.

Carleton College has a unique system that doesn’t require students to declare their majors until the spring term of their sophomore year. This type of system allows the freedom to explore multiple academic fields for two years in order to choose the path that fits best. I entered thinking I would be an English major or a History major, but I also was so fascinated by sociology, linguistics, and anthropology classes that I ended up taking in those first two years. In the end, I had managed to find a major that fit all of my academic interests and goals: I majored in Asian Studies, concentrating on East Asia, with an academic focus in Sociology and Anthropology. Long story short, I majored in Japanese culture.

I graduated from Carleton in 2011 just a few months after the devastating earthquake and resulting typhoon that damaged a large part of eastern Japan. Obviously, my family and friends had some concerns about my going there so soon after a major catastrophe, but I’ve always been stubborn.

I came to Japan in March 2012 as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) for a company that contracts with city-level boards of education to provide English teachers for schools. After working for the company for ten years first as an ALT and then as someone who helped train ALTs on top of teaching, I finally applied to and was accepted into the prefecture’s English Specialist program. It’s been a wild ride full of twists and turns but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

As a Menomonie native, I would love to see our city pick up the threads of the diplomatic relationship with its sister city here in Japan, which was established in 1991. Even perusing Menomonie’s official .gov website, there is absolutely nothing on the home page about Nasukarasuyama, in Tochigi prefecture. Even searching for “Nasukarasuyama” on the site brought up no results. I think it would be great if after reconnecting with our Japanese and Russian sister cities somebody in the future writes in their Nectar List that they had the chance to host an exchange student from those cities or they had the opportunity to visit those cities. It would be pretty sweet, in my opinion.

Judy Foust is a retired longtime 7th Grade Reading Specialist at Menomonie Middle School. To submit info to her or to request an interview she may be contacted at [email protected].