FEATURE: Lecturer reflects on nearly 40 years in Warsaw teaching Japanese

0 Comments | Asian Political News, March 16, 2008

WARSAW, March 11 Kyodo

Tsuneo Okazaki went to Warsaw in 1970 with his Polish bride thinking he would return home after a year or two. Nearly four decades later, he is still here, teaching Japanese at Warsaw University and raising new generations of Japanese experts.

''I've never thought of retirement,'' said the 63-year-old native of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. ''I intend to continue teaching as long as the university needs me.''

Poland was a Communist nation when he first set foot in Warsaw, but in the 38 years since he has witnessed the country's transformation from a communist state to a capitalist economy, a process set in motion by the emergence of the labor union organization Solidarity under the leadership of Lech Walesa.

Okazaki met his wife Krystyna at the international student dormitory of Kyoto University when he was studying French literature. They were married in 1969, the year he graduated. She completed her studies the following year and he accompanied her back to Warsaw, where she was scheduled to become a teaching assistant at the university.

Drawing on his experience of teaching Japanese as a foreign language back in his own country, he obtained the post of lecturer. Over the years, he became invaluable as a teacher of Japanese and editor of Japanese textbooks.

Okazaki recalls feeling right at home in Warsaw, and went with his wife to Chopin concerts every week. Meanwhile, in class, teachers were able to talk to students about whatever they wanted.

It was not like the image of the then Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, he said. ''There was freedom of speech.''

His hair now gray, Okazaki remembers Dec. 13, 1981. The city was under snow, and out of habit he had turned on the television to watch a popular children's program. ''But all I saw on the screen was the national emblem, an eagle. Soon (Wojciech) Jaruzelski, first secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (the former Polish Communist Party), appeared in a military uniform and proclaimed martial law.''

The government declared Solidarity illegal under martial law. Just earlier that year, Okazaki had taken a Japanese television crew to Gdansk, the birthplace of Walesa's labor group, and watched Andrzej Wajda direct the filming of ''Man of Iron.''

In 1988, he also witnessed frequent strikes, triggered by increases in the price of foodstuffs, among other factors. Solidarity was reinstated in government-labor roundtable negotiations in February 1989.

Free elections easily crushed the Communist dictatorship. Poland established the first non-Communist Cabinet in Eastern Europe and Walesa was elected president in 1990.

However, the turnabout in the Polish political system sent the economy into a tailspin, impacting Okazaki's university as well.

''It was terrible,'' he said. ''National finances collapsed. The university had no paper or chalk. Teachers barely received their pay and couldn't manage to hold classes.''

But events took a turn for the better, as far as Okazaki was concerned. Walesa named Okazaki's Polish colleague, Henryk Lipszyc, as ambassador to Japan. He was the first graduate of the university's Japanese course to hold the post.

When Japanese newspapers reported Okazaki's account of the difficulties the university's Japanese department was facing, Ambassador Lipszyc appealed to Japanese businesspeople for assistance, and they obliged. Okazaki remembers how other departments were envious of a photocopier the Japanese language department was able to purchase with this assistance.

''Polish diplomats stationed in Tokyo had been dominated by those who had studied in Moscow,'' Okazaki said. ''Since the days of Ambassador Lipszyc, my (former) students began to be assigned as diplomats in charge of cultural affairs in Tokyo. Japanese corporations continue to make inroads into Poland and the number of places where my students are actively engaged is growing dramatically.''

Okazaki is eligible to retire at 65 but whether he does so at that age is another matter.

But when he does, he will have plenty to occupy him. His hobbies are wood carving and listening to music, and he has a collection of over 5,000 CDs.

Twenty years ago, he and his wife bought a cottage at the edge of a forest along the Bug River about 100 kilometers east of Warsaw.

''That cottage is filled with my hobbies,'' he said. ''I won't get bored if I go there when it comes time for me to actually retire.''