Sensei and Sensibility

Yoshiko Yamaguchi, our sensei, or teacher, carefully clipped a small microphone to her collar so the students in the back could hear her.

“Konbanwa. O-genki desu ka?” she asked with a big smile. (Good evening. How are you?)

“Genki desu,” we answered in unison. (We’re fine.)

Later, when the class got a bit too rambunctious, Yamaguchi became serious: “Once you come in, speak only in Japanese. Otherwise be quiet.”

Speak only Japanese? I was in trouble if we were going to do more than exchange simple greetings. Although I’m fluent in Spanish, after taking French and Italian I realized studying a foreign language is one of life’s humbling experiences. And when the course is beginning Japanese, the experience can border on despair.

I’m not the only one who is struggling. Why are we all here, taking Japanese I at Pierce College two nights a week?

Some simply have an interest in all things from the Land of the Rising Sun. Others are dating someone Japanese. Some have Japanese ancestors, or have been to Japan, or can’t wait to go there. There are also Asian students who find similarities in Japanese to their own languages.

There are others--poor, stunned souls--who needed to fulfill their foreign language requirement for graduation and thought this class would be the ticket. They don’t seem too happy.

And then there are those like myself, who became interested in Japanese culture and thought studying the language would be interesting, fun and exciting--maybe even cool. After all, there is an undeniable mystique about being a Westerner who speaks fluent Japanese.

But it isn’t easy.

“It’s much more difficult than I thought it was going to be, yet I’m enjoying it more than I ever expected,” said Alan Goldsman of Winnetka.

A flight instructor, Goldsman decided to learn the language after several of his Japanese students became good friends. “It made me pay more attention to the culture, which I began to have high regard for.”

Goldsman dedicates his days off to studying Japanese and even takes the school work with him to Van Nuys Airport. While his students are off doing their preflight inspections, Goldsman practices writing Hiragana characters.

“It’s not just a squiggle any more. It has meaning and content,” said Goldsman, 48. “I don’t think I knew how engrossing it becomes.”

Goldsman and his wife, Eileen, are two of the most enthusiastic students.

Recently they went to a Japanese restaurant eager to practice some of their new vocabulary. But as with most beginning language students, it was rough going.

“We were assuming the waitress was Japanese, but she said, ‘I don’t understand Japanese.’ We were kind of disappointed,” said Eileen. “I think Alan was asking where the bathroom was.”

Now when Alan comes home he often finds notes left by Eileen--in Japanese. But only if it’s about a Japanese friend or other Japanese-related matter, he said.

“I’m sitting there three minutes trying to figure [the note] out,” he confided.

For Bo Pham, learning Japanese will be good for his career. He is a production manager at a Japanese company that makes printer ribbons.

“I would like to speak their language. It’s more for diplomacy,” said Pham, 30. He hopes he will be fluent for future trips to Japan, where he has a brother. “It would be nice if I traveled to Japan and knew what they were talking about.”

Pham confessed he has barely looked at the textbook during the semester, but luckily for him, the lessons are sinking in. Some of the Chinese-based words remind him of his native tongue, Vietnamese.

“I never thought I would take Japanese. Now that I’m taking it I like it more. It’s easy to learn as far as pronunciation is concerned,” said Pham, of Tarzana. “Things click.”

Which is what the sensei strives for. Yamaguchi said she prepares her lessons carefully, incorporating culture and history. But she still gets stumped by students’ tough questions on the vagaries of Japanese grammar. Once a student wanted to know if the verb imasu, used when discussing people or animals, applied to robots.

“It’s not really easy because you people want to know: Why? Why? Why?” joked Yamaguchi, who has taught Japanese at Pierce for 13 years.

“The instructor makes it fun,” added Eileen Goldsman, a packaging designer. “It’s really nice having someone who is from Japan, so you get the proper accent and the insight into how things are done in Japan.”

Yet teaching is only a part of Yamaguchi’s busy schedule. Yamaguchi, who is from the town of Nishinomiya, is also a licensed clinical social worker who juggles two day jobs: teaching citizenship classes for the Los Angeles Unified School District and working as a counselor and program coordinator at the San Fernando Valley Japanese-American Community Center in Pacoima.

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Yamaguchi tried easing my anxiousness after I spent three hours one afternoon learning to write 15 Hiragana characters.

“In just one semester you can’t master much,” Yamaguchi explained. “You have to listen, watch videos and the [Japanese] news. You have to try to communicate with Japanese people. You have to be very aggressive.”

The Rev. Gregory Gibbs, an associate minister at the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo, also gave me solace.

“I had a heck of a time. I failed first year Japanese two or three times before I passed it,” he admitted. It was not until he lived in Japan for three years that he became in his words “competent.” Now he delivers sermons in Japanese. “I had to get it or give up.”

This gaijin, or foreigner, admits he hasn’t been that dedicated to his studies. I also haven’t been bold enough to converse with Japanese people in their language. I preferred to spare us both the agony of tortured, short conversations until I learned more than how to introduce myself and ask the time. I also doubt I would impress them much by counting from one to 10 or saying the days of the week in Japanese.

But classmate David Liebert is less hesitant. He said Japanese culture and technology captivated him a long time ago, a fascination he traces to Japanese video games. He also enjoys eating sushi.

“I want to go this year to Japan and try some of what I’ve learned,” said Liebert, 22, of Panorama City. “I wouldn’t mind spending a good chunk of my life living there.”