English alumnus Nate Olson (BA 2010), who has been teaching English in Japan with the JET program, weathered the March earthquake in Hanamaki in the Iwate prefecture, 50 miles away from some of the worst tsunami damage. "A couple days prior to the quake," he writes us, "there was a magnitude 5 tremor which was the biggest earthquake I'd ever experienced. Everyone else at my school hardly batted an eye. . . . Then the big quake came [a magnitude 9]. The walls and light fixtures shook violently, books toppled off the shelves, and I said ten 'Hail Marys' and five 'Our Fathers' while waiting for the floor to collapse beneath me." The quake lasted six minutes. Olson marveled at the Japanese people's selfless and ordered response, observing that the teachers at his school visited each of their students' homes ("on spring vacation, no less!") to check on their well-being. "As an outsider, I was completely taken aback by the care I received from neighbors, coworkers, and even complete strangers following the quake."Olson works as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) at two high schools, teaching a class ("Oral Communication") to 10th graders with little to no experience speaking English. At one high school, his students are university-bound with an "encyclopedic" understanding of English grammar; at the other, they know very little about the language. The difference in comprehension can be daunting: "In a given week," he describes, "I am by turns a fully-fledged teacher expected to design lesson plans around the intricacies of native English speech, and a glorified human tape recorder expected to entertain students with my 'foreignness.'" Yet the community spirit he witnessed after the quake and tsunami inspired him, and he plans to continue in the JET program, his teaching augmented with such activities as running an English club and helping a student prepare for a national English speech contest. Meanwhile, the ground shakes: amid the aftershocks was a magnitude 7 that knocked him out of bed. His thoughts are for those who have lost everything and still must stand on unsteady ground "constantly reminded of the cause of their misfortune."
