Japan student
breaks the mold

At 79, Shizue Kimura finishes
an intensive HPU course in English

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By Keiko Kiele Akana-Gooch
kakana-gooch@starbulletin.com

Shizue Kimura isn't an average college student at Hawaii Pacific University -- even with a black-and-white composition book in hand and a backpack on her shoulders.

The professor emeritus from Sagami Women's College in Japan is 79 years old and speaks little English. Yet she ventured alone to Hawaii for a month-long English language class, studying as if she's just another student on campus.

"It's difficult, very hard," Kimura said, speaking through a translator at HPU's International Center in downtown Honolulu.

Kimura enrolled in HPU's Proficiency in English Program (PEP) to better communicate with her English-speaking friends.

She became the oldest student in the short history of HPU's 3-year-old PEP program.

"She is an inspiration to her classmates," said Jean Kirschenmann, PEP coordinator.

Despite the hurdles inherent in learning a foreign language at any age, Kimura has never felt like giving up.

"It's more than study for me. It's pleasure," Kimura said.

The PEP program, which is offered throughout the year, is composed of two classes spanning a four-hour period each weekday for four weeks. One class focuses on language skills, with an emphasis on listening and speaking. The other is a class in which students practice English by discussing specific topics, such as Hawaiian culture, sports, music, environment or history.

The program began July 29 and ended Friday. Students who finish the program receive certificates of completion.

Although it is relatively new, the intensive English program is accustomed to having older students from around the world, Kirschenmann said.

"We have quite a few people who come because they are lifelong learners or because they want to try something they've never done before," she said.

Kimura definitely fits the first bill.

In the Japan she grew up in, most women would marry after high school to become housewives. But when Kimura graduated from high school in the late 1940s, she was one of five who went on to college from a class of 50.

She was one of three women from a class of 80 to become a professor of home economics.

HPU student Sachi Amai, born and raised in Japan, has met Kimura only a few times at her campus job at the International Center, but her respect for Kimura has quickly grown.

"The Japanese older people are shy. They're not that open-minded, not challenging" themselves, she said, not like Kimura.

Amai, who helped translate Kimura's comments, explained that in Japan, 26 is unusually old for someone to be in school. High school graduates are expected to instantly enroll in college and graduate in four years. People assume older students flunked their courses or weren't initially accepted into college.

Many Japanese think in the box, Amai said. "(Kimura's) out of box."

When Kimura was in school during World War II, English was forbidden, she said. But the language is a required subject now.

Kimura is happy the times have changed, but not quite enough, she said.

Classes in Japan are still very formal, and teachers follow their syllabus religiously.

"They don't have any flexibility," Kimura said, unlike her HPU English teacher, who sometimes deviates from planned class activities and has sat on her desk, eating food.

While she wouldn't go as far as sitting on a desk -- "That's very off limits," she said -- Kimura plans to return to Japan and share her experiences to help change the centralized educational system and the teacher-student relationship.

"Compared to Japanese and American, American teachers are much more friendly than that in Japan," Kimura said.