セブ島英語学校の先生たち

 

セブ島英会話学校、ランチ後のレッスンが始まる午後１時。

学校の廊下に、100人近い若い女性の行列ができる。

遅番の先生が続々と出勤し、タイムレコーダーに並んでいるのだ。

先生の９割が女性で、そのほとんどは20代。狭い通路の両側に並ぶ先生の間をすり抜けて教室に向かうと、たどり着く頃にはフラフラになる。

大量のフェロモン（？）が放出されてるみたい。

この学校に在籍する先生は約600人。授業をマンツーマンで行い、オンライン・レッスンを提供する先生も登校して仕事をする。だから校内は常に、生徒より先生の方が多い。

セブ島の英会話学校は、極端な労働集約型産業だ。

 この日、ランチ前のマンツーマンレッスンはキーロフ先生だった。

韓流ドラマが大好きな彼女は、メイクもKコスメでばっちり決めている。

「でも昨夜は、日本映画で泣いちゃった」

その映画のタイトルは「Flying Colors」。検索したら「ビリギャル」のことだった。小４の学力しかない女子高生「学年ビリのギャル」が熱血塾講師と出会い、半年で偏差値を40上げて慶応大に合格する、ウソのような本当の話だ。

以前、有村架純演じる「ビリギャル」小林さやかさん本人の講演に行ったことがある。教育関係者が目立つ聴衆に向かって、初っ端からタメ口が炸裂した。

ああ、この人は本当にギャルだったんだなぁ。

でもキーロフ先生のツボは、本筋にはない。ビリギャルの弟が、プロ野球選手になる夢を父親に強要されてグレ、確執が生まれる。映画の後半、その父子に和解が訪れるシーンで涙が流れた、という。

家族の絆を大切にする、フィリピン人らしい感性だと思った。

グループレッスンのジャスティン先生は、学校でただひとりのアメリカ人。そして希少な男性教師だ。腹は出ていても、まだ30代。フィリピン在住８年目、こちらで妻帯した。

日本やタイでも暮らしたが、外国人がいちばん住みやすいのがフィリピンだったという。

「東京にいた頃は、半年間で２回も警察官の職質を受けたよ。こっちに来てからは、７年でまだ０回」

日本人の私は生まれてこの方、職質を受けたことがない。日本警察は、外国人を犯罪の温床と見るのだろうか。住みにくいわけだ。

ジャスティン先生も株式投資をしている。授業で一緒になった奈良女子大の学生たちに、彼と２人がかりで

「アメリカ株のインデックスを買えば、５年ごとに２倍になるよ」

「働いて給料をもらうようになったら、すぐ資産運用を始めた方がいいよ」

と勧めてみた。でも、果たしてどこまで伝わったか…

「なんや胡散臭いおっさんが、けったいなこと言うてはるなぁ」

みたいな顔をしていた。

Teachers at Cebu English school

English school in Cebu, 1:00 p.m., when the first lesson begins after lunch time.

A line of nearly 100 young women forms in the hallway of the school.

The teachers who work the late shift line up in front of the machine to punch in their arrival time.

Ninety percent of the teachers are women, most of them in their twenties. Slipping between the teachers lined up on either side of the narrow aisle to get to class, I am dizzy by the time I reach my classroom.

It seems I inhale a large amount of pheromones ...

The number of teachers at this school is as many as 600. In addition to selling one-on-one English conversation lessons, teachers who offer online lessons also come to school to work. Therefore, there are always more teachers than students in the school.

English conversation schools in Cebu are extremely labor-intensive industries.

 My one-on-one lesson before lunch was with Ms. Kierulf.

She loves Korean dramas and wears a lot of K-cosmetics in her makeup.

But last night, she said she cried at a Japanese movie.

The movie is called “Flying Colors". I searched for the title of the movie and found that it was “Birigyaru,” a movie about a high school girl with the academic ability of an elementary school kid. The story is about once she meets a passionate cram school teacher, improves her deviation score by 40 points in six months, and passes the entrance exam to Keio University.

I once went to a lecture by Sayaka Kobayashi herself, “Biri Gyaru,” played by Kazumi Arimura. She spoke to the audience, which consisted mostly of middle-aged and older educators, in a very casual manner from the very beginning!　Oh, she really was a gyaru, wasn't she?

But Ms Kierulf's pressure point is not a success story. The younger brother of the “birigyaru,” who was entrusted by his father with the dream of becoming a professional baseball player, falls behind, becomes a gregarious jerk, and a feud develops between him and his father. In the latter half of the film, when the father and son reconcile, Ms Kierulf's tears flowed.

I thought this was a very Filipino sensibility that cherishes family ties.

 Mr. Justin is the only American at the school and a rare male teacher. He may have a big belly, but he is still in his 30's. He has been living in the Philippines for 8 years and is married here.

He has lived in Japan and Thailand, but he said the Philippines was the most comfortable place for a foreigner to live.

"When I was in Tokyo, I was questioned by police twice in six months. Since I came here, I have not been questioned in seven years" he said.

In all my life, I have never been questioned by a police officer for more than half a century. I wonder if the Japanese police view foreigners as a breeding ground for crime. No wonder it is so difficult to live there.

Justin is also a stock investor. One day, a group of students from Nara Women's University were in class with us.

So I and Justin told them, “If you buy an index of U.S. stocks, it will double every five years"

“You should start investing your money as soon as you start earning a salary!"

We tried to encourage them to do so. But I wonder how much they really understood...

They looked at us like, “What a suspicious old man talking nonsense"

I was not sure how much I got through to them.

ERナースと「睡蓮」

 

ランチタイムの、セブ島英会話学校カフェテリア。

大学生か社会人か、いつも４～５人で群れている若い日本人男子がいる。

夜な夜な、マッチングアプリで現地の女性と遊んでいる。その様子を、卑猥な言葉で自慢し合う。

この人たち、何しにここに来たんだろうね。

 一方で誰ともつるまず、ひとり黙々と食べるカッコいい日本女性がいる。

あかりさんと、ももかさんだ。

２人とは、入学オリエンテーションで知り合った。休日に、一緒に遊んでもらった。

ふんわりしたファッションと明るいブラウンヘアのあかりさんは、東京の大学生。見かけ都会のお嬢様だが、ラオスのビエンチャンからバンビエンを経てルアンパバーンまで陸路で旅するなど、なかなかの大物だ。

市内見物に行った時は、誰よりも電波を拾うスマホで配車アプリを使いこなし、カルボン市場やサントニーニョ教会、あちこち連れて行ってくれた。

でも Google Map を見ていながら、なぜか反対方向に歩き出す。サンペドロ要塞にたどり着けたのは、この私のおかげです。

留学生活も２週間を過ぎた頃、「そろそろ飽きてきた」と、ひと言。

こっちは毎日、レッスンに食らいついていくだけで必死なのに…

やっぱり、あかりさんは大物だ。

 ももかさんは、泣く子も黙るERの看護師。ふとした眼差しに、スペシャリストのプライドが滲む。この学校には医療英語のコースがあるので、さらなる高みを目指す医療従事者が集まるのだ。

郊外をバスで走っていた時。窓からぼんやり熱帯雨林を眺めていたももかさんが、救急車とすれ違ったとたん、活気づいた。

「フィリピンの救急車ってどんなかなぁ。車内を見学したいな！」

血が騒ぐらしい。

交通法規などあって無きに等しい、混沌としたセブ市内。彼女と歩いていると、得も言われぬ安心感がある。いまクルマに轢かれても、ナースももかさんが救命してくれる！

彼女の趣味は、絵画鑑賞だ。モネの「睡蓮」が大好きで、作品が日本に来た時は必ず足を運ぶという。

去年、パリのオランジュリー美術館で私も「睡蓮」に向き合った。心が邪念だらけなせいか、いまいち、その世界に入り込めなかった。

救急救命センターで急患対応に明け暮れていると、魂のレベルで「睡蓮」の静謐さを欲するのかも知れない。

 週末ランチに、セブ島名物レチョン（子豚の丸焼き）を食べた。２人とも、見ていて気持ちがいい食べっぷり。きれいに平らげて、まだ足りなそうだった。

ER nurse and The Waterlilies

Lunch time, English School cafeteria in Cebu.

There are always four or five young Japanese guys, probably university students or working adults, huddled together.

They are playing with local women on a matching app at night. They brag to each other in an obscene manner about their activities.

What these people are doing here...

 On the other hand, there are cool Japanese women who don't hang out with anyone and eat quietly by themselves.

Akari and Momoka.

I met them at the orientation. They hung out with me on their days off.

Akari, with her fluffy fashion and light brown hair, is a university student in Tokyo. She may look like a city girl, but she is quite a big shot, traveling overland from Vientiane, Laos to Luang Prabang via Vang Vieng.

When we went to see the city, she used a car-dispatch app on her smartphone that picked up more signals than anyone else and took us to the Carbon market, Santo Niño Church, and many other places.

But while looking at Google Maps, she sometimes started walking in the opposite direction. I made it to the San Pedro Fortress.

After two weeks of studying abroad, she said one word to me, “I'm getting tired of it.

I'm just trying to keep up with the lessons every day...

Akari is a big shot after all.

 Momoka is an ER nurse who silence the crying child. The pride of a specialist is evident in her eyes. The school offers a medical English course, which attracts medical professionals who aspire to higher levels like her.

Once we were driven a bus in the suburbs. As soon as she passed an ambulance, she became animated.

"I wonder what an ambulance is like in the Philippines. I want to see the inside of one!"

Her blood was boiling.

Cebu city is a chaotic place, where traffic laws are as rare as they are nonexistent. Walking with her, I felt an indescribable sense of security. Even if I were hit by a car, Nurse Momoka would save my life!

Her hobby is to appreciate paintings. She loves Monet's “Waterlilies” and always goes to see them when they come to Japan.

Last year, I also had the chance to see “Waterlilies” at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. Perhaps it was because my mind was full of evil thoughts, but I could not enter into the world of the work.

Perhaps it is because she spend most of her time at the emergency room dealing with urgent patients that she crave the serenity of “Water Lilies” at the level of her soul.

 We had the Cebu specialty, lechon (whole roasted suckling pig), for lunch on the weekend, and both of them were very pleasant to watch as they ate their fill, and it looked as if they still had more to eat.