I came to Australia, to start my new life with Barry, in 1983. First, I tried jobs such as interpreter, translator, secretary and tourist guide for the first six months, then entered a course in language teaching in 1984.

Previously, I had been a high school English teacher in Japan for 9 years, so teaching was not totally new to me. Teaching Japanese, my native tongue, however, was not something I had ever thought of doing when I was doing my BA at Osaka University of Foreign Studies.

My career as a Japanese teacher began as a Saturday morning teacher at University High School in Melbourne in 1985. After a short period at relief teaching at St. Catherine’s, I obtained a full time position at Montmorency Secondary College. It was a long time before the Japanese language learning boom, and there were few senior secondary schools that offered Japanese. So Japanese teaching resources were limited.

I remember that I had to produce worksheets for the following day’s lessons almost every day after coming home from school. Those sheets were hand written or typed on my Olivetti typewriter on stencils and copied, using a spirit duplicator. Those stencils had to be re-produced manually after about 100 sheets. We welcomed the introduction of word processors and photocopying facilities when they became cheaper.

There were major curriculum reviews in the 1990s. To meet the requirements set by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board, I produced my first senior secondary textbooks by rearranging the resources I had accumulated over 7 years as well as writing new materials for my students. These books were hand written in the beginning, but were soon published by Macmillan Education (Australia) with financial subsidies from the Japan Foundation. I have to thank all those friends who assisted me in introducing me to the publishers.

1n 1998, those original textbooks for the senior secondary students were reviewed. In 2003, a new textbook for the middle years was added to bridge the junior secondary and senior secondary course. I have been  fortunate in having the support of staff at the school and students who could give immediate feedback to the textbooks.

To this date I have been teaching Japanese in Australia for nearly 23 years. I am planning to retire in 2007 and move on to something new.

In addition to teaching, I have been a member of KSKK, the International Youth Association of Japan, for 28 years and organise Study Tours to Japan each year. These trips are held jointly with Fairhills High School and the visits are reciprocated with Japanese students visiting Australia each year.

Keiko Aitchison