Hoilund 先生のインタビュースクリプト（その１）
Hoilund:
In Danish we have two ways of saying “hello.” As a formal way, well, we say “God day.” And then there’s amore informal way where you will just say “Hi.” My name is Bente Hoilund. Bente is my first name andHoilund is my last name. I come from Denmark, from Copenhagen where I graduated from Copenhagen
University many years ago. And I have been a teacher for a long time. Especially, I have been working ata trade school or business school with young people from fifteen years old up to eighteen years old. But
then I had a period in Indiana, the U. S. A., Indiana, Indiana University where I taught Danish for them for
more than two years. And then I went back to Denmark again and I worked at the same trade school orbusiness school for a couple of years, but I wanted to go out again to see the world. And then, it had beena very good experience in Indiana, so I wanted to go to a foreign country again. And then I heard about,eh, that they wanted a Danish teacher at Tokai University, Tokai in Kanagawa. So I applied and I got thejob and I have been there for. . . I was there for five years, actually. Then I was asked by Osaka Universityof Foreign Studies if I wanted to come down here after that. Then I said yes and now I have been here forfive years and this is my last year.
Interviewer:
Thank you. So you’ve been in Japan five. . . for, for. . . ten years. Could you tell me your impressions onJapan?
Hoilund:
Yeah. I’ve got so much to say because it’s a very exotic country. It’s to me, coming from Scandinavia, it’s
so different, everything is so different. But then I would say that the thing that struck me the most about
Japan as a whole was that I feel safe here. I feel very safe, okay I live in a very nice neighborhood, I live inOnohara Higashi. It’s a very nice neighborhood. And there’s never any problems. No violence. Of course Iknow that you have crime in Japan. Of course you are one hundred and twenty-seven million people, soof course you have a crime rate, but it’s very low. And I have never, ever, had anything, any problems, notfeeling threatened in any way. So that is very, very nice about your country. And. . . you want me to speak
about, more about your country, my impression of Japan?
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Hoilund:Well, that was something positive. I had also something that I was very surprised of in. . . in my field, youknow, as of being a teacher because I. . . I have been teaching as I told you at Indiana University also, so
when I came to this university I expected little bit like the same level. But then. . . yeah, I don’t know what

is wrong but the students here are very. . . they are not so engaged. They’re very. . . shy away. I don’tknow what it is, but it’s so hard to make them speak and it’s hard to make them really study. It’s as if they
don’t know how to study in a way and it’s as if they’re not really, really interested. I expected that. But now
after ten years I think I have somewhat of an explanation. Maybe it’s a school system. Because I know thestudents and they’re wonderful, they’re so nice and very social and very friendly and well-behaved. I likethem a lot. But as students, they’re not what I had expected university students to be. And I think it’s
because when they chose to go and study at a university, it’s not really because they want a career in thatfield. I hear many of my students say, well, afterwards we’ll go and have jobs in a big company and not
really be using what they learned. So, first and second years, they’re more eager to learn but then thirdand fourth years, it’s as if “Well, what’s the use, we won’t use what we learn anyway.” So they’re kind ofgiving up. And that is very, very strange to me, coming from the Western world. Yeah.
Interviewer:
So, the situation of the educational system is very different in your country?
Hoilund:Yeah, yeah. Very different. Also, in class if you know something in Denmark or in other Western countries
you would raise your hand and you will tell your opinion. You would be much more active in class. Here, I
have to point at a person to make them speak. And it takes forever for them sometimes to answer. So it’s
not very effective. It’s as if they don’t know how to study and to, how to behave, they’re so passive. And
it’s a shame because they’re young people, and they are not stupid, so they could actually learn. I thinkit’s a waste. I think it’s. . . Japan must be a very rich country that they can afford such a waste. Yeah.