by 1998 GSE team member Reiko Satoh
Prologue
My one-month long homestay experience in Arkansas gave me priceless memories and a splendid opportunity to learn about American culture and society. All of the host families were Rotary Club members, and even though I was unable to explain myself effectively because of my poor English, I was able to have a very meaningful learning experience because everyone made such a concerted effort to listen to me and because they gave me much advice. I am so thankful to everyone for everything.
Also, since it was a Rotary Club project, they had a wonderful program prepared for us which enabled us to experience things that we could never have experienced on the average trip overseas. As a result of their volunteer spirit and their goal of fostering international goodwill, we experienced things that would have been very difficult to experience otherwise.
I will now try to share with you in as orderly a way as possible the memories I was able to make in Arkansas.
Rotary Club Visits
At each of the Rotary Club meetings we attended, we gave a 30-minute presentation, and then there was a time for questions and answers related to the presentation.
The 1998 GSE team member selection of District 2660 focused on the goal of deepening the team members' knowledge of medical and educational topics, and as a result our team was quite varied vocationally, consisting of a surgeon, Mr. Shomura, Mr. Kaneshige (who is an office worker at Miki House Corporation who hopes to be transferred to the children's book publishing division of the company, Ms. Sakagami (who works for a marketing firm as hiring and personnel manager, and also serves actively in the finance department as a member of the board), and myself (a public servant employed in the Sports Section of the Osaka City Educational Committee). It was inevitable that our personal speeches were very diversified in contents, and we received a welcome far greater than I had ever imagined. In addition to the four team members, Mr. Nomura (a charter member of the Sonezaki Rotary Club) accompanied us as team leader, and with him we visited about 20 different Rotary Clubs in District 6150. He also took part in the presentations and speeches, beginning each meeting with an introduction to the Rotary Clubs in Osaka . Also, I had a very good experience being able to attend the district conference of R.I. D-6150 and have a nostalgic reunion with the GSE team members and the team leader who had just visited Japan on this program, and to also be a part of the team presentation there in front of some 200 people.
Our team presentation consisted of a video inspired by the one prepared and shown in our D-2660 by the Arkansan team, and it contained our self-introductions along with an introduction to our region. Following the video presentation, each of the team members gave speeches in English that were based upon the video, and we were able to keep our speeches within the allotted time and keep things moving smoothly. In addition, the video itself was beautifully done by a professional, and everyone thought highly of our presentation. I feel a bit bad for those who attended several meetings, however, because we showed the same video at each of the more than 20 meetings we attended and some people saw it a number of times.
During the personal speech time, we all talked about our family and our occupation. During the Q & A time after the speeches, most of the questions had to do with the present state of medical treatment in Japan since medical care is the most pressing concern in the minds of many Americans. Since Mr. Shomura was able to field such questions very precisely and accurately, our reputation as a GSE team was very favorable! Many people still recall the effort made by President Clinton's wife, Hillary, to nationalize the health care industry in the United States, where the patient must bear a large percentage of the health care costs. Even open-heart surgery and lung surgery patients must check out of the hospital in 3 to 4 days in most cases, which is quite different than the situation in Japan. Since there is no problem mentality regarding the need to promote sports in the United States, I had no fear that people would ask me any questions, and this made the Q & A time fun for me as I could sit back and enjoy Mr. Shomura's answers.
As an aside, most of the team members wore dark blue blazers to the Rotary Club meetings, and I don't know if this had anything to do with it or not, but at most of the meetings, I was mistaken for someone in her high teens! They say that many Americans and Europeans think Japanese people are younger than they really are, but I started getting a little bit embarrassed when, at every meeting, the audience would burst out in loud laughter every time my true age was mentioned.
About Arkansas
Arkansas is located in the southern part of America on the western shore of the Mississippi River. The main industry is agriculture and it is the largest rice producing state in America. Arkansas is the home state of General Douglas MacArthur, and it is also known as the birthplace of President Clinton. The population of Arkansas is about the same as that of the city of Osaka (2.5 million), but the land area is more than 600 times that of Osaka. The standard of living and level of education is ranked relatively low in the United States, and the promotion of industry and raising the standard of education are two main topics of concern in Arkansas. In the neighboring states of Tennessee and Georgia, the population is predominantly African-American, but in Arkansas, there is a 7 to 3 ratio of whites to blacks. The people are very conservative, traditional, friendly and laid back.
My Homestay Experiences
All the team members were divided up for our homestays, and I stayed at 8 different homes. Of course, this was my first time to experience a homestay, and since our schedule was very hectic, with the longest homestay being 4 days and the shortest being just 2 days, honestly speaking, I was a bit fatigued mentally since each of the families had a completely different make-up. Still, every day brought its own new and fresh discoveries, and I was welcomed with open arms at all of my homes. It is said that because America is such a vast country and so thoroughly automobile-oriented, you can't get around without a car, but thanks to the hard work of all the Rotarians, we were able to get around quite smoothly and experience a meaningful time of learning.
Since more than half of my host families were working in the educational field, I was able to gain a much deeper understanding of the educational system in America.
The fact that schools are becoming the scene of more and more juvenile crime (such as shootings and drugs) has become a serious social problem. I was surprised to learn that some inner-city schools have installed metal detectors at the school gates and have hired security guards to help keep drug dealers away from the schools. Hearing about daily incidents of shootings and drug deals among so-called "children's gangs" and seeing how the children have graduated from children's pranks to actual crimes, I couldn't help feeling that America is a much more dangerous country than Japan, even though the crime rate in big cities is coming down due to the hard work of law enforcement officials. I also felt very strongly the difference between Japanese and American culture when I saw that the names and photographs of juvenile criminals appeared on TV and in the newspapers. It seems that the majority of people prefer "punishing the guilty" over "rehabilitating" them, even in the case of minors. Due to the recent incident involving the murder and decapitation of an elementary school boy by a 14-year-old in Kobe, there has been some talk of revising the juvenile law here in Japan, but the fact that there is absolutely no sense of "protecting minors" in America left me with a very strong impression that the social attitude on this issue is completely opposite that in Japan.
Home parties
In addition to the Rotary Club meetings, we also attended 8 home parties, and we were able to experience typical American cooking and enjoy getting to meet other host families and Rotarians. At these home parties, the men were in charge of the cooking when the parties were held outdoors, and the women were responsible to bring food when they were held indoors. Since the men are used to cooking outside like this, they are very skillful at it. Things are very different in America compared to Japan, where "a man's place is not in the kitchen." In Japan, camping is becoming more and more popular, but the mentality that it is the woman's job to cook is still quite strong, and I would like to see Japanese men learn from their American counterparts in this regard.
Difficulties
At every Rotary Club meeting we attended, our team was given 30 minutes for our presentation followed by a Q & A time, which was a good means of deepening friendship and understanding, and I think this was a valuable experience for us. But after arriving in America, I was shocked to find out that many of the meetings were called "early Rotary Club meetings," or breakfast meetings, and these started at 7:00 in the morning! Having to get up in front of everyone with my "early morning face" and speak in understandable English was much harder than having to do such a thing in Japanese, and you can imagine how difficult it was.
As far as the English was concerned, everyone spoke with a southern accent, and it was very difficult for me to understand what people were saying for the first week or so. But day by day I became less hesitant to speak, and amazingly I was even able to start to enjoy conversations and jokes. Arkansans love to talk, and even after returning home after a full day, my host family would engage me in a lively discussion, and it was very hard for me to find the right time to say I was going to bed, even when it got to be after 11:00 o'clock. There were many times, the night before an early Rotary Club meeting, when we would look at the clock and be surprised to see how late it had become.
Vocational study
I was given the opportunity to do some surveys and research in the fields of education and sports promotion.
One thing which proved to be a bit embarrassing for me regarding the vocational study was the fact that because I had written in my profile that I was in the law department in university, everyone thought of me in the same way that they would an American law school graduate and expert in law! Therefore, my schedule included visits to the State Courthouse and law offices as part of my vocational study. I was often asked questions by lawyers about the present juvenile crime conditions in Japan, or about methods of criminal investigation, crime trends, the right and wrong of capital punishment, the abortion problem and more. Since I had not prepared in any way for such questions and didn't know any of the technical terms, it was very difficult for me and quite embarrassing.
What impressed me most in relation to the education problem was the "difference between American and Japanese treatment of juvenile crime suspects." In Japan, even if someone commits a crime, if they are under the age of 20, they are protected as a minor. They are protected from the press, court proceedings are closed to the public, and they are subjected to reeducation in hopes of rehabilitating them. In America, however, children are treated as adults once they reach the age of 16, and if they are accused of committing a crime, their names and photographs appear on TV and they are sought after by reporters who wish to hear their alibi. The wife of one of the lawyers at the law office I visited is a school counselor, and this lawyer has been influenced by his wife's opinions. He doesn't feel that minor's name and photo should appear in public as long as he or she is a suspect and not convicted as a criminal. As a result, he was very interested in the Japanese approach to handling minors who have committed crimes, namely that instead of "punishing them severely," it is better to "strive to help them become rehabilitated as good adults through reeducation, helping them to acknowledge that what they did was wrong, and helping them to return to society."
In regard to school education, I was deeply impressed by the fact that in Arkansas they take a variety of approaches to education based upon the racial make-up and educational level of a region so that the boards of education for each city and town can decide upon the best curriculum and educational system for a certain region of the state. For example, in Jonesboro, they have the goal of unifying the level of education for the children. So, all the 6th graders in Jonesboro are put into one school, called the 6th Grade Academic Center. Also, since there are no entrance exams until students want to enter university, the students were studying in a very relaxed atmosphere. Each class consisted of approximately 20 students, and the teachers were using a variety of means and innovative class content to help nurture student interest. In an international understanding class at one of the elementary schools I visited, the teacher was using homemade teaching materials that were wonderful. All the students had brought from home souvenirs and items from each of the various countries being studied, and I was able to see and feel the teacher's skill and innovation in helping the students to become familiar with the world. Also, I was impressed by the fact that all the schools, from kindergarten on up, are utilizing computers in their educational curriculum. The minimum required school facilities and equipment, determined by national and local educational policy, are funded and established using state tax money. Because the funding given to all the public schools comes from specifically ear-marked "education taxes," the citizens vote to determine the way in which the educational tax money should be used.
As you know, professional sports are very popular in the United States, and I was very moved to see the wonderful environment provided for the students through their abundant school sports facilities. Also, one of my fondest memories of my time in the United States was getting to go to a major league baseball game and enjoy the play of top-level baseball players. There were about 40,000 fans in attendance at the Sunday afternoon game, and almost all of them were rooting for the home team St. Louis Cardinals, who were playing the Florida Marlins. It was a great Cardinals victory over the solitary Marlins. Mark McGwire, last year's home run king, plays for the Cardinals, and it was too bad that his new Busch Stadium record for the longest home run was set the day before we went.
Well, it may have been a bit confusing or incoherent, but I appreciate the chance to report on my visit to Arkansas. I want to take this opportunity to once again express my gratitude to the Osaka Rotary Club that recommended and supported me, and also to Mr. Matsuoka, chairman of the GSE Committee, for all the wonderful help and advice he gave to me.
