Making English work / Dentist learned a new tongue
Although the dental term "periodontal disease" or gum disease, is widely understood nowadays, the term was not familiar in Japan when Eiji Funakoshi, now 59, went to Tufts University's School of Dental Medicine as a graduate student to study periodontal disease in 1971.
Not only did Funakoshi get a certificate of periodontology from the school in 1973, but he also got a teaching job at Indiana University's School of Dentistry the same year.
"When I was young, I always wanted to go to the United States, as some of my relatives had moved there," Funakoshi said. With this motivation, he attended an English class given by volunteer U.S. military personnel at the American Cultural Center in Fukuoka, where a U.S. base was located in the 1960s. He also joined the English Speaking Society, an English club, at Kyushu Dental College when he was a student there.
He sent more than 10 applications to schools of dentistry at U.S. universities and colleges. He was accepted by Tufts in Medford, Mass., and Loyola University in Chicago. "I chose Tufts as the school had Dr. Irving Glickman, a well-known professor in periodontology," he said.
As Funakoshi enjoyed life in the United States, he sent many applications seeking a teaching position to universities that had schools of dentistry after he got a certificate of periodontology in 1973.
"It was very difficult for a Japanese to get a teaching job at U.S. universities in those days," he said. Nonetheless, he received positive answers from five universities. After the interviews, four universities offered him a position. Although his professor recommended Loyola, Funakoshi chose Indiana University because the professor in charge there had received him informally but with impressive kindness and courtesy.
"The professor was famous in dentistry and I wanted to work under him," Funakoshi said. Although knowing dental technical terms helped him a lot in speaking English, Funakoshi sometimes faced a language barrier in other ways. He remembered one particular episode.
"After my lecture, one student came to me and said that he couldn't understand my English," Funakoshi said. Funakoshi was very depressed, and a few days later he asked another student, who was a designated note-taker for the class, if he would need a tape of his lectures to take notes. The note-taker said he didn't need one as he understood what Funakoshi said in his talks.
"The student told me not to worry about the other student who complained about my English, saying that the student always complained to foreign teachers," he said.
Funakoshi's wife's remarks also eased his worries, albeit in a backhanded way. "She said it wasn't my fault if students didn't understand my English," Funakoshi recalled. "She said the university was to blame for hiring me as a teacher!"
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Funakoshi, who had been very self-conscious about his English, felt freer to behave like his natural self from then on. He was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor and was on track to get tenure in a few years.
Although he liked the United States, especially the fair treatment he received at the university, he decided to return to Japan in 1978. one reason was that my parents wanted me to come back, but the main reason was my English," he said.
His English ability was sufficient to give lectures on his specialty as an assistant professor. "But as an associate professor, I had to attend various meetings and had to check the theses of graduate students," Funakoshi said.
He also said he could not participate in discussions beyond his specialty. "In those meetings, professors discuss various issues, including administrative problems. on those occasions, I could not follow their discussions and I felt the lack of my English ability," he said. Rewriting graduate students' theses was also difficult for him.
After he returned to Japan, he taught at Nihon University and Kagoshima University's School of Dentistry for more than 10 years and worked as a dentist at the clinics of various companies before opening his own clinic in Fukuoka in 1980.
"Although I don't use English in my daily work, I often read English dental magazines," Funakoshi said. He also tries to listen to English by watching videos that his son and daughter have rented.
Besides operating the clinic, he is also teaching as a professor at the School of Dentistry of Kyushu University and also at his alma mater, Kyushu Dental College.
As a director of the Japanese Academy of Clinical Periodontology, Funakoshi attends professional congresses in foreign countries and studies the latest dental techniques.
In December 2006, he was invited as a speaker at the first Asian congress on dentistry held in Shanghai. In January, he plans to attend a medical congress on tooth implantation to be held in San Antonio, Texas, and he has also been invited to attend a world congress to be held in New York in April.
Funakoshi said that on such occasions, he brings along one of the young dentists from his clinic, so they may benefit from watching and learning foreign dentistry.
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This column features interviews with professionals who use English in their jobs, experts and others interested in the language in the hope of offering insights into learning the language. Readers are invited to offer themselves as candidates to be featured in this column or recommend an acquaintance. E-mail dy-edu@yomiuri.com.