ブックタイトルa-history-of-international-exchanges00

概要

a-history-of-international-exchanges00

- 4 -＜Reminiscence (1) ～An Excellent Party Organizer～＞Mr. Butterworth was wellremembered as an excellentparty organizer. He organizedat least two big parties annuallyafter he came to Miyazaki. Onthe 4th of July, IndependenceDay of America, many peoplecame together to his house nearthe Oyodo riverbank east of theTachibana-bashi. The partystarted with the reading ofDeclaration of Independence.At first most people listened tohim attentively, but some peoplesoon got tired of listening andstarted drinking beer or chatting. And yet he continued to read it to the end, with a towel around his neck soaking wet withsweat. Then we enjoyed fireworks on the riverbank. In December, we celebratedChristmas. Every room of his house was full of people, who sang Christmas carols andexchanged presents. He got a mountain of junk food from Daiei and ordered KentuckyFried Chicken over and over again. He gave us chances of direct experience of Americanculture. We miss those parties!(2) Sending a Mombusho-supported student to EnglandOn the recommendation of Mr. Butterworth and Mr.Takasu, Mayumi Oshikawa, a second year student of EnglishDepartment, applied for the scholarship by Mombusho. Shewas successful in passing a written test and an interviewgiven by the British Council. Mombusho decided to awardenough stipend for her to study for one year at a university inEngland. Mombusho picked Keele University as the place for her to study, with tuition waiver. The scholarship also covered the round-triptransportation expences. Her stay was one year: from 1975 to 1976. She sentme an e-mail recently, looking back those days:“….One day, when I came home from the university I was told that Mr. Takasucalled to ask if I was interested in studying abroad. Since I had joined theEnglish Department, I had a dream of going abroad someday, but I never evendreamed of studying abroad…. It can be said that the telephone call from Mr.Takasu changed the course of my life!”