I studied English for seven years. I started learning English in the sixth grade of elementary school. My homeroom teacher taught English as an extracurricular class to pupils in the top ten out of 55 pupils. His goal of that English education was to master the English of a first-year junior high school student. I was allowed to receive that English education, and by the time I became a junior high school student, I could read and understand the English textbooks for first-year junior high school students. I studied English for six years: three years at a public junior high school, and three years at a public high school. I could not go on to university and was the only one in my class to get a job.
In Japanese society, academic qualifications are recognized for those who have graduated from a university or graduate school, and those who have only graduated from high school are counted as uneducated and unqualified (Academic Outsiders). This is a division of social classes in a highly educated society.
In high school, my father was a local government employee. In the third semester of my third year of high school, just before my university entrance exam, my father collapsed with cerebral softening and was hospitalized. My high school teacher recommended that I enter a night school in Osaka City, saying that if there was even the slightest possibility, I should enter university. So I decided to take the exam to become an administrative staff member at a junior high school in Osaka City. I would be an employee of Osaka Prefecture.
The exam was held at a certain junior high school in Osaka City. 240 people took the exam. However, only 20 passed. On the day, many examinees were reading their workbooks in the middle school yard. I stood in a corner of the schoolyard, watching them. At that moment, a man 10 years older than me spoke to me. "Aren't you going to study for the exam?" I replied, "I've been studying up until now to take the university entrance exam..." and told him that my father had fallen ill and my path to university was closed. He asked me, "Which university were you planning to take the entrance exam for?" I answered, "Following the advice of my career guidance teacher, I was planning to take the entrance exam for Kyoto University's Department of Philosophy."
Then he told me the circumstances that led him to take the Osaka City Junior High School Administrative Staff Recruitment Exam. He passed the entrance exam for Osaka University while still in his third year of high school. On the day he received his acceptance letter, his father fell ill. He gave up on entering Osaka University and ended up supporting the family in place of his ill father. After 10 years of caring for his father, he was no longer satisfied and decided to enter university and start his studies again. During those 10 years, he worked as a stevedore at Kobe Port in an attempt to master English to maintain the English skills necessary for university entrance exams. He also became able to converse freely in English with foreigners. However, 10 years after first passing the entrance exam for Osaka University, when he was preparing for the entrance exam for the national university, he said that his English skills were not high enough to pass the entrance exam for a national university and that he could only pass the entrance exam for the easiest municipal university in Osaka City.
He advised me: "You seem to be in the same situation as me, so it may be 10 years before you can take the entrance exam for a national university again. I will teach you how to maintain your current English skills so that you can still pass the entrance exam for a national university in 10 years. 'Read an English-Japanese dictionary from cover to cover, solve the university entrance exam questions that are given every year to check your English skills, and read several English books in the field you will study at university.'"
Then he introduced me to another student who was nearby. He passed the entrance exam for Osaka Prefecture University. But his father was furious and said, "If you pass the entrance exam for Osaka National University, I will pay your tuition, but if you pass the entrance exam for Osaka Prefecture University, I will not pay your tuition! His father apparently prevented him from entering Osaka Prefecture University. So he took the Osaka City Junior High School Administrative Staff Employment Exam to study what he wanted at university while working.
The examinee, who is 10 years older than me, introduced me to several other people who were in the same situation, couldn't give up on going to university, and came to take the exam to study at university while working. There were seven of us, including me. We stood at the edge of the junior high school playground, watching the other examinees studying. All seven of us passed the Osaka City Junior High School Administrative Staff Recruitment Examination and were employed as administrative staff at Osaka City Junior High Schools. At the training session immediately after our employment, we shared the joy of passing the exam with each other.
