Japanese Students in Small-Town U.S.A.
They are the future business leaders of Japan and they are here this summer, in conspicuously untrendy Santa Paula, to bone up on English and immerse themselves in American culture.
And though they’re just 65 miles northwest of pace-setting Los Angeles, students from Tokyo International Business College are purposely keeping their distance. They’re not on the lookout for duck sausage pizzas, Surf Nazis, jet propulsion scientists or Kim Basinger wanna-bes. In fact, they’re sidestepping the mass media version of the Southern California Experience.
Agriculture Industry
The choice of slow-moving Santa Paula--where the leading industry is agriculture--as the site of the college’s first United States branch was “quite intentional,” explained Tokuroh Arimitsu, the consultant who helped the Japanese junior college select the Santa Paula location and purchase the Glen Tavern Inn there for its dormitory/campus.
“Mass communications inform the Japanese that America, especially Los Angeles, is very dangerous. The Japanese are very conscientious about safety,” said Arimitsu, who is also chairman of the Department of Three-Dimensional Art at Cal State Northridge.
Compared to L.A., Santa Paula, with its population of about 24,000, looks and feels safe indeed. Though it sits on the Pacific Rim, 45 miles southeast of Santa Barbara, the city more closely resembles Fairfield, Iowa--except it has orange groves where the corn fields should be.
Different Life Style
Everywhere, it seems, there’s the flavor of small-town U.S.A.:
--Meg’s Newsstand still sells corn cob pipes and a sign advises “You Must Be 18 and Prove It to Buy Tobacco.”
--Mayor Les Maland has his home phone number and address listed in the telephone book and when his wife answers the phone for him, she doesn’t ask who’s calling or why.
--Main Street is dotted with mom- and pop-style shops, among them Bertha’s Family Hairstyles, Victoria’s Dowry Jewelry and Rudd’s Christian Supplies. At Vince’s Coffee Shop, also on Main, a sign expresses the warm, no-frills approach that’s prevalent here: “Water given upon request. Thank you! God Bless You!”
--The airport is located 2 1/2 blocks from downtown and, according to Mayor Maland, “it’s run like it was back when aviation was a novelty.”
“It (a small town) is much better for us chaperons to keep an eye on them (Japanese students) here. It would be very difficult in Los Angeles,” said Tatsuya Sudo, who teaches English translation at the business college in Tokyo and is serving as a chaperon for its 27 students in Santa Paula. “I think this will show them the real America. It’s a family-oriented city, less crime-infested.”
And the students, who arrived in Santa Paula mid-July to stay for eight weeks, claim they are relieved they are away from the land of gang wars and drive-by shootings.
“This area is very safe. I thought it would be dangerous, like Los Angeles,” said Shigemi Minakawa, who like most of his fellow students, is 20 years old.
According to their instructors, nearly all the students have studied English for several years. They’re somewhat proficient at reading and writing the language. But speaking English is another matter.
‘People Very Friendly’
Thus, to continue, Minakawa spoke in Japanese, allowing chaperon Sudo to translate: “Sometimes he walks on the road here and people are very friendly. People he doesn’t know ask him how he is. That never happens in Japan.”
When the students are restricted to English, their teachers affirmed, their impressions of the United States tend to be expressed in just two words: big and friendly.
Thus far, in addition to studying American culture and English conversation for three hours every morning--in classes taught exclusively in English--the students have had numerous field trips. They’ve been to a shopping mall in Thousand Oaks, to Disneyland, to Dodger Stadium and to nearby Ventura, Ojai and Oxnard. Before they leave, they also will visit Universal Studios, Venice Beach, Solvang and Hearst Castle in San Simeon, among other places.
Melrose Avenue and Rodeo Drive are not on the itinerary, and the students are not objecting. In fact, they have complained among themselves that they don’t have enough free time to relax with each other.
Case in point: They attended a recent weekday performance of “Oz,” a variation on “The Wizard of Oz,” presented by American students at the Santa Paula Theater Center. While some students enjoyed the performance and met with young cast members afterward, a few of the Japanese students slept through the musical.
“Some students didn’t want to come to the theater. They want to sleep,” explained Toru Kawamura, 21, who would like to attend a U.S. college after his graduation from Tokyo International Business College.
Like the other students, Kawamura had seen the film version of “Wizard of Oz” the day before. But it was more for educational than entertainment purposes.
Staying Up Late
“They want more play time,” Kawamura said, noting that some of the students had taken to staying up late at night to visit in their rooms, thus their sleeping during the play’s performance.
While some students indicated their most difficult adjustment or non-adjustment has been to popular U.S. foods such as bleu cheese dressing and root beer, for Kawamura the toughest shift has been understanding the attitudes of Americans.
“They are very open, very direct,” he said, in what his instructors called the most advanced English of any of the students. “At first it was confusing. In Japan, it’s impolite (to be so direct). But now I think this is natural, better than Japanese customs.”
His visit has hardly been perfect, however. Kawamura still can’t get over the fact that if students want to go anywhere on their own in Santa Paula, they have to walk or ride a bicycle. “This city has no transportation. No subway. Almost no bus,” he moaned, still sounding outraged. “In Japan, I could go anywhere without a car. Here I need a car.”
According to Sue Ellen Arimitsu, the language teacher who directs the program and is married to consultant Tokuroh Arimitsu, new students will arrive every two months, with the next group scheduled to arrive in mid-September. In addition to regular tuition for programs in Japan, students pay $4,000 (including air fare) for their two months in California.
The program originally included teaching the students to drive, U.S. style, Arimitsu noted, and obtaining American driver’s licenses, status symbols in Japan. “But the driver’s manual was too far above their heads.”
Students Reticent
Arimitsu, who has lived in Japan with her husband, was well-prepared to work with the students. But she indicated that even she was somewhat surprised at how “low some of their speaking skills were” and how reticent most of the students were in class.
“I’ve been around Japanese people a lot and I’m . . . unable to tell if the students know something or not. Their faces are totally passive. It’s very hard to get them to open up,” she lamented. “Before they answer, they’ll want to confer with each other in Japanese, which drives the American teachers up the wall. It’s a cultural difference. But they’ve started to loosen up a little.”
Teacher/chaperon Sudo agreed: “In Japan, the students are trained to just listen to the teacher quietly. It’s also new for them to be in a small class. . . . I don’t blame the students for their disability in speaking English. In Japan, (their English skills) are oriented to taking exams. They don’t know how to pronounce words.”
That doesn’t seem to bother the residents of Santa Paula, many of whom have personally welcomed the Japanese students to their community.
“I think (their presence) will be a good experience for everybody,” said Bob Russell, a certified public accountant who’s president of the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce.
The Santa Paula Citrus Assn. sent the school a basket of fruit for the students. But the business that’s possibly become most involved with them has been the local Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor, a student favorite within walking distance of the school.
According to June Maland, the mayor’s wife, a couple of residents have complained that the Glen Tavern Inn was purchased by Japanese rather than American owners. The inn, which has played host to Clark Gable and Rin Tin Tin, is a local historical site. It was built by a group of businessmen and ranchers who saw a need for it in the early part of the century. Though much of the inn is used by Japanese students, it is still open to the public.
But in the view of the mayor, a retired systems engineer, the community has had no genuine problems with its new student populace. “And usually,” he confided, “if there’s anything that stirs up the neighborhood, I get an earful.”
