In 2013, the Tsuru Japanese Language Center opened its doors, the entrepreneurial dream of a Japanese woman who seeks to offer a quality alternative to the teaching of nihongo in Lima.
Toyomi Tsuruta has lived in Peru since 2010 with her husband, a Peruvian engineer whom she met in Japan, where he was studying. She didn't come to Lima on an adventure, to see what would come out, but with a certification as a Japanese language teacher, and soon after she got a job at an educational institution. Three years later, he decided to go his own way with Tsuru.
“Knowing Japanese is one thing, knowing how to teach is another thing,” says Toyomi, clearly outlining the course of his center. He wants teachers who have studied to be one. It is not enough to master the language.
It started in a small place and with her as the only teacher. The students arrived little by little, mainly by recommendation (there is no advertising more effective than word of mouth), and today it has a spacious premises and more than 50 students.
There are other teachers at Tsuru, but none full time. He says that there are good nihongo teachers in Peru who, in search of better income, quit for other jobs. One of their aspirations is to offer these professionals a good job.
His teaching is comprehensive, he explains. Read, write, speak, listen. If you focus on learning only kanji , you won't be able to speak. And vice versa. How many levels are there? Three: basic, intermediate and advanced.
CHILE, COSTA RICA, PERU
Toyomi's first contact with Latin America was Chile, where he lived between the ages of 6 and 10 because of his father's work. He studied at a school for Japanese and did not learn Spanish, a thorn that he was able to remove during adulthood.
She studied Spanish in Japan, improved it in Costa Rica, where she was a JICA volunteer in community development projects for two years, and perfected it in Peru.
In Japan, she and her husband spoke in English. Now they do it in Spanish. With English being a foreign language for both of them, there were limits to what they could express. And since they planned to live in Peru, she was determined to improve her Spanish.
“If I don't know Spanish I lose many things. My life would be very limited if I didn't know how to speak Spanish, it would be impossible to have my own business,” he says. She doesn't notice it as much, but her husband and friends have told her that her language skills have come a long way since she arrived in 2010.
Although before coming to Peru he was in Costa Rica, another Latin American country, it took him a while to get used to it. The way of life, of thinking, the behavior. Sometimes we tend to generalize and believe that all Latin American countries are – essentially – the same thing, but there are differences that Toyomi felt. Costa Rica is a smaller country than Peru and life, in general, is simpler.
“My husband in Costa Rica told me 'here everyone drives very well, the traffic is very orderly.' For me, coming from Japan, it was chaos. When I arrived in Peru I understood what my husband was saying,” she says, laughing.
For a foreigner who has recently arrived in Peru, in addition to the hellish traffic, tardiness is another headache. For this reason, in the first classes, she is direct with her students: "I say it very clearly: 'You have to arrive on time, you have to be responsible because you decided to study.' The class schedule is already established and there is no excuse for being late. If one arrives late, not only does one lose part of the class, one also harms other students by being late, making noise, interrupting.”
One of the things that stands out about Peruvians, and is perceived in their students, is the effort they make to progress, to improve their education. In Japan, he explains, anyone can get a good education by going to public school. “Getting a good education is normal,” he says. In Peru, good education is difficult and people constantly strive to advance.
Regarding the Nikkei, Toyomi, who has twice been secretary of the Association of Japanese Language Teachers of Peru, has a positive impression of them as respectful and educated people, which she attributes to her training at home.
“INSIST, INSIST, INSIST”
The majority of Tsuru students are young. College or university students, workers in their twenties. They come because of their love of manga and anime or because they plan to travel to Japan, usually for a scholarship.
There are special cases. For example, the former dekasegi who while he was in Japan did not master the language and enrolled in the basic level to learn from scratch. Or the Nikkei lady, in her fifties, who as a child was unable to learn Nihongo at home and, as an adult, was encouraged to study the language of her ancestors.
Toyomi highlights the case of a septuagenarian who decided to study Japanese after becoming widowed because she planned to travel to Japan to live with her son, married to a Japanese woman. It was more difficult for her to learn than the young people, and even after class she approached the teacher to tell her that she felt uncomfortable. “I'm bothering others, I'm not learning well.”
However, he did not give up. He made up for his shortcomings by trying harder than the rest, preparing for each class with determination. If he didn't understand something, he studied it later and thus managed to catch up with the young people and even surpass them.
Toyomi uses her as an example to say that to learn a language “no matter your age, you can learn to death. “It all depends on each one.” The key is “insist, insist, insist.”
She experienced it firsthand. “If you study something and you don't understand, you have to continue. That happened to me when I was trying to learn Spanish in Japan. I listened to a radio program (in Spanish) from NHK and I was always like 'I don't understand anything, I don't understand, I don't understand'. But he didn't stop, he continued, he continued and little by little I understood. At one point I started to understand well, but most people stop before reaching this point.”
The point she makes is fundamental. He says that when you get to it, once you get over the frustration stage, learning a language can be fun. You've already left the bumps behind and you slide, you flow, you enjoy.
Toyomi not only wants its students to learn the language, but also to get to know Japanese society better. He tells them about what the Japanese are like, the transportation system, the stores, etc.
The teacher born in Fukuoka wants to discover new horizons for her students through language.
“When learning another language, you learn another culture, its way of thinking. If you only know one language, your world is like this (boy); With two languages it is broader, you can see things from another dimension. I have always liked learning languages and I want everyone to have the same experience of having fun learning a language.”
Toyomi is a voracious reader. Its library filled with works by Japanese authors occupies a prominent place in Tsuru. Like every person who loves books, he likes to recommend: Shion Miura, Shuichi Yoshida, Mitsuyo Kakuta, Kaori Ekuni. Names to discover Japanese literature beyond the famous Haruki Murakami. Authors to explore other worlds, like the worlds she opens when she teaches.
© 2016 Enrique Higa Sakuda
