Last year, I happened to see my former teacher who had taught me Japanese in my junior high school days. He had won the respect of pupils with his intelligence. To my sadness, however, he had slight impaired cognition. It was natural that he didn't remember me, one of many pupils. I told him various recollections expecting that something excavated even a part of his memory from the depth of his brain.
I was born and brought up in a rural place of Ehime prefecture. In such places, the compulsory education was so-so, and it was not enough for me. I felt some emptiness. At that time I thought I'd like to become someone who leads the nation and moved to the prefectural capital city alone to get a higher level of education. Then, I met the above teacher. He used a novel, "Silver Spoon" as a textbook of Japanese. I remember that I had been overwhelmed by the toughness of the novel. I couldn't believe that the novel was the textbook. So, I told him about "Silver Spoon", and it seemed to trigger the blowing of 40 years' period. He started to talk and talk.
The other day I found the book in the list of the municipal library. I borrowed the book and read it. It was nice, and I enjoyed it though I didn't think so 40 years ago. I thought it was due to being short of age that I couldn't understand the novel 40 years ago.
(Vocabulary)
win/earn/gain the respect of sb ＜人＞から尊敬される, に感心される
I remember re-reading a novel from my younger education and thinking that it was a completely different story. It's interesting how much more we learn about elementary subjects as we get older and wiser. I wonder how much your recollecting with your teacher helped him. I bet he went home that night with many more memories to think over. That's really neat. (sarah)
Posted by: Sarah | Feb 03, 2011 at 04:41 PM