アメリカ生活２０年、アメリカ人に日本語を教えているものの自分自身はいつしか日本語から遠ざかる生活を送るようになっていた。言葉は文化だ。じゃあ自分の文化の根底は？日本語と英語の接点は？そんな時バベルのニュースレターで無料のWS資格試験のお知らせを読んだ。 翻訳の勉強がしたい、でも経済的な問題があって二の足を踏んでいた私にとってこれは一つの機会だった。PCの知識が乏しく、PCを通しての学校という点に不安はあった。時間的な問題もあった。が、幸いWSに受かり１年次の学費の大幅免除という後押しができて、いろいろな不安を抱えながら思い切ってバベルへ入学という挑戦を行った。当初ウロウロする私に懇切丁寧に助言してくださった事務局の方々の対応もバベルという学校の姿勢が感じられ、それは現在も続いている。 また翻訳だけでなくPCのクラスもあり、限りなく勉強するチャンスに恵まれている。 課題を送りその添削を読みながらの勉強は大変だが、後は本人の努力あるのみと言い聞かせているこの頃である。
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I have been living in the USA for almost 20 years, and have been teaching Japanese for a long time, but I feel that I am losing my own language. I believe that language is a culture, so what is my root of the culture? Where is the crossing point between Japanese and English? When I was thinking those things I read the news letter from BUPST and found out about the Working Scholarship. I had wanted to study translation for a long time, but it was too expensive for me to take classes. Besides, I didn’t have enough knowledge using a PC, so I was very worried about PC studying. Also, since I was tutoring several classes per week, I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to study. Since it was free, I took the WS test anyway because wanted to find out what my translation level was. Fortunately, I passed my test and got the fellowship and was excused from half of first year enrollment fee. That was a big help! I decided to take the challenge and take classes at BUPST. At first I had no idea what to do, or how to do anything, but I got very kind help from the administration office staff, and that help is still continuing. There are also PC classes in addition to the translations classes, so if you would like to study more, then you can do more. Your opportunities have no limitation!
Of course it is very hard to study by yourself, sending your reports and checking what your mistakes are and how to make more accurate translations, but I’ve learned something since I started at BUPST last July. You are the main key to your own success. When you work hard you will get what you want, and when you work harder, then you’ll get even more. (Student’s Transcript)