The Clarion ' October 1, 1990 Page 5
Shigeo Okuma shares
with a different culture
by Lin Redmond
News Bureau Editorial Assistant
Shigeo Okuma, a new faculty
member at BC, has come from Japan to
live in the United States for the first
time. He will teach courses concerning
Japanese language and culture, and serve
as a mentor for Japanese students and
interested American students.
Okuma, who is experienced as a
teacher and journalist, says with a
laugh, "I'm here from Japan, but I'm not
here to sell a radio or automobile, or to
build estates, but to share with a dif
ferent language and culture."
Okuma wants to share his own
knowledge of Japan, and he would like
for his American friends "to sell me all
your language skills and culture." He
adds, "I make an effort to buy them all -
but without money. That's a main
purpose."
Okuma was bom in Yamanashi-
prefecture, a small town at the foot of
the legendary ML Fuji. He says several
things, about Brevard remind him of his
hometown -- particularly BC's cornfield.
"We grow com there," he says of
Yamanashi. "It is small, surrounded by
high mountains." He agrees with many
Japanese students that Brevard's
landscape and weather are similar to
Japan's. As a child he helped with the
growing of crops and did India ink
paintings of local scenery.
Okuma graduated from Meiji
University in Tokyo with a bachelor's
degree in arts and literature in 1956. He
then worked for high school teachers in
English language at the junior high
school of Yamanashi, Gakuin Univer
sity for about one year.
Okuma then worked for 30 years as
a journalist in Tokyo with the Japan
Times, which he says is the largest
English language newspaper in Japan
since 1897. He served as a reporter in
the social and political departments,
then as a member of the managing staff
in the advertising and circulation
departments.
In addition, Okuma served from
1958 to 1964 as Director of Kasiwa
UNESCO Association and advisor to
the Youth UNESCO Associations.
From 1982 to 1986 he was vice-
chairman of the Parents Association for
Autistic Children and Adults.
After retiring from Ihe Japan
Times this past August, Okuma took a
teacher training course with Interna
tional Internship Programs in Tokyo.
Okuma says he was always
attracted to the idea of becoming a
teacher. He chose to come to Brevard
because, he says, "The kindest people
are here."
He has four children - three adult
sons, and a daughter who is in high
school. He reveals his alignment with
the ideals of other BC faculty members
when he says emphatically, "The
Japanese students are just like my sons
and daughters."
As for his classes, Okuma says,
"My Japanese language course already
started — twice a week, Monday and
Thursday, 6:30 to 8:30. Also I wanted
to teach art, like Japanese calligraphy
and India ink painting. And also to teach
"go" games - it's like chess." Looking
to spring, Okuma says, "For next
semester I'll make an advanced course,
Japanese 102."
To American students interested in
going to Japan, Okuma advises to
remember that commodity prices are
high and education is very expensive
there. "But there are many interesting
things to study," he says, "high tech
nology, business management. It's
different"
Okuma agrees that Japanese people
are shy, "Especially women," he says,
"but don't hesitate to talk. They are
open-minded like people in the U.S."
He says, "I talk to everybody in this
community. I make an effort to teach
everything I know about Japan.
"I'm not a scholar," he continues,
stressing his central values of
egalitarianism and sharing. "I'm a
journalist in Japan and common people
don't hesitate to talk to me."
A
Dr. Jeffery Llewellyn, works with students, left to right, April
Whitmire, Nicole File, and Robert Parks.
(Clarion photo by Rachel Moore)
Dr. Llewellyn: 'I'm an educator'
Visiting Japanese teacher and
journalist, Shigeo Okuma,
relaxes at his home in Brevard.
(Clarion photo by Lin Redmond)
by Sarah Fish
Clarion Assistant Editor
"Everything else up to this point
past history. I learn from the past but
I’m not going to live in the past."
- Dr. Jeffrey Llewellyn
Sept. '90
These words came from BC's new
biology professor, chairman of the
Division of Mathematics and Natural
Sciences, researcher and ecologist, as
an explanation to his daily motto:
Today is the first day of the rest of my
life.
Dr. Jeffrey Llewellyn came to
Brevard College this summer for many
reasons other than the job itself. Ht
came to be chairman of the division of
Mathematics and Natural Sciences -
"and that's a whole new thing for me,"
he says. "Previously I've been a faculty
member; I still teach but I have a
division to run which has a lot of
responsibilities," he says.
Other more personal reasons for
his coming here include his love of
challenges. "It was new and different. A
big challenge, I like challenges," he
says.
He also likes the faculty and
students. He says, "Man, what a great
group of people. Everybody's very nice
and real laid-back." The final con
tributing factor was, he says, "I wanted
to go to a quieter, more peaceful, more
sane place, where one doesn't have to
worry about a lot of the things you have
to worry about in a metropolitan area.
So it was more or less a package deal."
Dr. Llewellyn received his
bachelor's and master's degrees at the
University of Northern Iowa, ("in my
hometown. Cedar Falls, Iowa," he says)
and his doctorate at the University of
Nevada in Reno. He completed in 10
years, the standard amount of time for a
PhD in the sciences, and declared his
major his junior year. He says, "I'd
always kind of liked biology." Now he
says, "I don't have any regrets. "1 like
biology, I like teaching, I like all the
things I'm doing."
Although he spent last year
teaching in Miami at Florida Memorial
College, a four year liberal arts, he
spent most of his career at the College
of Basic Studies of Boston University.
"The reason I left Boston Univer
sity ~ I felt like 1 had reached a dead end.
I did the same thing day after day for
years and ye.ars and I just decided I
wasn't going to continue with it
anymore," he says.
"As you go through life things
change and what was a great thing one
day may not be a great thing down the
road."
He adds, "The important thing is
to be happy in this lifetime and when
you get to that point where it's no
longer a good situation, don't be afraid
to change it, get out of it, go forward.
Too many people don't do that"
While at BU, he was in the two
year College of Basic Studies. BU con
sists of 15 colleges and schools. People
sometimes start with the two-year
program and then transfer within the
University. "So, working in the two
year liberal arts program wasn’t
something I hadn’t been doing," he says.
"One thing I like about leaching... I like
working with students because suidents
are still free and open and willing to try
an experiment".
Dr. Llewellyn already has a
good impression of Brevard's students.
He mentioned his religious background
as being Presbyterian, a close relation to
the Methodist church. "I’ve always felt
that the Methodists and Presbyterians
were good decent people — so I thought
that about the students at BC and that’s
been confirmed ever since I’ve been
here," he says, "I think the students here
at the College are a good group - I have
a great oi’ lime with them."
Dr. Llewellyn, says of himself
simply, "I'm an educator, that's what 1
am. I just happen to like to teach along
with doing research and put it all
together U) try to educate people about
the environment, ecology, biology, life
in general, etc. etc. etc. I'm an
educaux."