My English in English #2
My hometown Shin-Hidaka, formerly called Shizunai, sits in the southwest of Hokkaido along the Pacific Ocean. Nestling at the foot of the steep Hidaka Mountains while overlooking a deep, vast sea, the pastoral town is dotted with thoroughbred horse-breeding farms in the hinterland.
As the center of the horse industry in Japan, Shin-Hidaka established a sister city relationship with Lexington, Kentucky in the United States, which is well-known as the home of America’s most famous Kentucky Derby. My hometown welcomed the first delegate dispatched from Lexington – the first American in my hometown.
My father, who runs juku, a cram school, mainly teaching English, jumped at this opportunity. Taking advantage of his extensive local network, he managed to meet and invite her to his school as a part-time English conversation teacher.
At that time, living away from my parents, I did not know the American teacher Jennifer was teaching at his juku until I came back home during the summer vacation. It was the summer of my high school senior year.
(to be continued)