Making a place

2024/12/02

My friend Arthur is a warm, smart and cheerful American guy, 33 years old.

He lives in Tokyo with his Japanese wife and two kids.

He has worked for Japanese students to support them to learn English for more than

ten years.

Arthur told me a story of his struggles to make his world since his childhood.

Arthur was 4 years old

Making a place

Arthur’s parents are American but he was born and raised in Germany.

In his kindergarten he couldn’t make friends.

He remembers playing with a Korean boy, not understanding each other’s language.

He was Arthur’s only friend at that time.

When Arthur was seven years old, his family relocated to Boston, the US.

In his school, Arthur was bullied by the kids because, they said, he’s German.

However, Arthur actually is American.

He couldn’t make friends there.

Arthur retreated at home.

He watched TV and played games all day long.

His mother tried to take him outside, but she couldn’t.

His parents worried about him.

For several years after then, he changed school every year but didn’t have friends at school.

When Arthur was 14 years old, he couldn’t stand his loneliness anymore, so he tried to change his life.

When he entered a high school, he got new clothes and a set of card trick in a mall.

He was excited to see his classmates gathering around him to watch his tricks in his class room.

When Arthur was 11 years old, he started drawing manga.

He loved the Japanese manga “Dragon Ball.”

Through drawing the cartoon, Arthur felt his stress relieved and he got interested in Japan.

While drawing cartoons, Arthur dreamed of becoming a Japanese cartoonist and wanted to go to Japan to train himself for a Japanese cartoonist.

He started learning Japanese by himself.

Later, his family hired Yukari.

She was studying in a university in his city.

He became more engaged in learning Japanese.

When Arthur was 16 years old, however, Yukari was going to graduate the university and go back to Japan.

Yukari and her family invited Arthur to stay at their home in Tokyo for a month.

While staying in Tokyo, Arthur was inspired by the people there to learn Japanese culture and manners.

He appreciates them a lot.

What impressed him most was the BBQ parties at his stay home.

His host father talked to him again and again, pointing at himself and at Arthur using a quite simple English.

“I’m here and Arthur is here. That is En.”

En is a Japanese idea of human connections.

Japanese believe that people have a connection with people you meet and the connection will last a lifetime.

En is a kind of fate.

The idea of En influences how people live and what relationships they have with others. Arthur didn’t understand En at that time but he thought it’s something important and influential.

After his staying in Japan and after his returning to the US, he decided to go back to Japan.

While studying at a university in US, he applied for an exchange student scholarship every year and finally won it when he was 22.

While studying in Tokyo, he started teaching English to Japanese people and had a Japanese girlfriend.

He returned to Seatle after his student life in Tokyo.

But he had decided to come back to Japan and he came back to Japan after a year and half.

He began his business of teaching English and married his girlfriend to start his family. He named his company IU Connect, including connect inspired with Japanese concept -“En.”

He enjoys supporting his students to make connections with people all over the world.