Taka

I was introduced to Taka Suzuki by Dan, the teacher I replaced. Dan assured me that "Taka" was a cool guy. They did a hippy trip to Kyoto- went by local train all the way and slept in stations and on park benches. We went to Roppongi together, Taka and I(he helped me buy my stereo)and he seemed like a good guy.

Then one day in class something happened. There were a couple of attractive girls in the class and I think Taka was hot for 'em. Hell, who wouldn't be? One day one of the girls came to class late. As she entered the room, she had to squeeze past me to get to her chair. In doing so she inadvertently pushed her butt into my face. Taka said, "Do you want to touch it?" I replied, "Taka, shut the hell up." He started talking rather excitedly to the girls in Japanese which I didn't speak too well (still don't!). The girls looked at me and buttoned their shirts up to the top. I don't know what he said but it sure spooked them and pissed me off. He continued that kind of behavior for a few classes. He'd ask me something rude then report to the girls who looked more and more uncomfortable. Finally I said, "Taka, if you're going to be that way, get the hell out of here!" "No." was the response. I stood up and dragged his chair with him still in it out the door.

Management thought it still appropriate to keep him in my class. When his contract came up for renewal, I kept it quiet. They found out and gave me shit. He said he would like to continue his contract. They assured him he could stay in my class. I freaked. The bozos in head office wouldn't do anything to help me. Lord knows I asked for advice. They just gave me soft words and said it's the manager's choice. I'd had enough. I went to Yumi (manager du jour) and said, "If he renews his contract, I'll give you the money to match it to keep him out of the school." Everybody heard it. Ann and Sally had lectured Yumi on the fact that if he showed up in their classes, they'd do SOMETHING. So it had to be me, the new guy, right?

Yumi looked at me waiting for me to smile or something but I was dead serious. Everybody waited for the other shoe to drop. Yumi managed to squeak out, because she spoke not a word of English, "Chris is funny."

In the end, Taka did not renew and I heaved a sigh of relief. I sometimes see him in the bar even now. I never make a move to talk to him. I don't even acknowledge him. He is a bit of a player in the Eikaiwa teacher world because of his language ability and because Odawara is such a small damn town. To this day, before I teach a class, I take the chair that is at the end of the table (usually directly opposite me) and remove it. That's the chair Taka used to sit in and I consider it unlucky. I remove it to remind myself never to let Taka happen again. Whenever I get a disruptive student now, he's gone. I put my foot down with all managers. The story of my offer to buy his contract made it all the way to head office and became grist for the gossip mill among the Yamanote loop people. I had a co-worker go for training in Shinagawa have another teacher from somewhere else ask her if she heard the story of the guy who was going to buy out his student's contract.

She said, "Yeah, I work with him."

Apparently I'm legendary.