On The Road To: The Story of my life and my Avocado Tree! by Neriza Sarmiento-Saito

“ It’s a rat’s race...“ so they say to mean that there is a fierce and stiff competition in business or in life. Come to think of it, this year 2020, the year of the metal Rat, will probably not be too competitive for me because I have retired from the Department of Philippine Studies of Osaka University in Minoo, after 30 years. I had mixed emotions of sadness, gratification and sense of fulfillment after I finished my class of the Sophomore students who did their presentations in Filipino. After turning off the lights in my classroom and closing the door behind me and walking along the corridor, I said to myself “It’s a WRAP“ (a term used on movie sets to mean, the end of the last take of a movie).

But that’s not where my story will end. Like a labyrinth, the story of my avocado tree will also come in. Right after our recording this year in FM Cocolo for our regular From Overseas: Philippines hosted by Cindy and Mina, we went out for dinner with Mr. Fukui, our Director. He was telling me that the avocado he nurtured from a seed has grown into a beautiful tree. He got the idea after I wrote in one of our scripts for the lesson in Filipino about my passion for growing avocado trees from seeds. Although my first attempt was futile, I never gave up! The first one grew to be a big tree, but it never bore fruits. I think I watered the plant too much. In the next attempts, I washed the seed well, dried it and inserted toothpicks into it, then soaked it in a glass of water.

I made sure that it was not exposed to direct sunlight. After about 4 weeks, the roots appeared and when the stem appeared I transferred it in a pot. Now, I have a lovely avocado indoor plants but no sign yet of fruits to come out.

Growing an avocado tree from a single seed is quite similar to nurturing learners. Too much sunlight and too much water will hamper their growth.

In the beginning of the Heisei era, in 1990, my friend Emmie Ueno asked if I’d be interested to teach at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies in Minoo, to substitute for Prof Yolanda Tsuda. My youngest son in a brood of 3 boys was barely two years old. I was hesitant to accept thinking how tenuous it would be to juggle time between parenting and teaching. It had been a long time since I taught at PNU, and after settling in Japan, I’ve been a full time housewife. However, I couldn’t resist the offer. After the birth of my first son Andrew and second son Brando, I became active in Filipino Community Affairs and had part time teaching jobs with the Osaka Board of Education.

At that period in Japan, it was not common for women to work outside and for women with children, it was also not easy to get acceptance at nursery schools. My mother-in-law was not happy either seeing me leave the small children with her and my husband. On other days, I made arrangements with my friends or neighbors to take care of them. Soon enough, a nursery near my house accepted our application! My son cried every time I brought him there. Sometimes, I turned deaf ears to his wailing but deep inside, my heart was breaking apart.

Every class was a joy for me. The first batch of students who I taught were Prof. Sachi Takahata’s. Although I had chances to teach Japanese students in English, this was different. The Philippine Studies Department was still under the Indonesian Department. Prof. Mamoru Tsuda interviewed me. I was amazed to hear a Japanese speaking in Filipino fluently. I also had the privilege of meeting luminaries in the field of Philippine studies, literature and the Arts: Dr. Bien Lumbera, Dr. Rosario Torres -Yu, Dr. and Mrs. Oscar Evangelista, Dr. Lilia F. Antonio, Dr. Nicanor Tiongson, Dr. Pia Arboleda, Dr. Joi Barrios, Dr. Rolando Tolentino, Dr. Galileo Zafra, Dr. Joey Baquiran and the current visiting professor is Dr. Edgar Samar.

When I first met Prof. Masanao Oue, on the first day of classes, he was wearing a “Barong Tagalog“. At first, I thought that he was a Japanese-Filipino mestizo with his impeccable Filipino. With Prof Oue’s help, Emmie and I were able to publish our first book on Filipino conversation in April 1994. It was used as one of the textbooks in my Filipino language classes in addition to having the students do collaborative work by performing in a play project in a playproject in Filipino. At first, it was not easy to convince students to do drama in the classroom. They were typically shy and not so expressive. There were moments that I wanted to give up and just concentrate on raising my 3 young children but I could feel an empty void in my life. For me, teaching is an art and by being creative, we give something of ourselves to others and by doing so we feel confident and fulfilled. The students also got a sense of fulfillment after a television crew filmed our class doing a scene from Noli Me Tangere.

With hundreds of graduates from our Filipino Department who are now working here and in other countries, there are some of them who are able to make use of their proficiency in Filipino like Tamaki Kurita with ABC Channel 6, Kyoko Kimura who worked with the Philippine Tourism Office in Osaka, Matsutaro Yamazaki who is a Consul at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Keigo Teraji who is now employed at the Philippine Trade Office in Osaka, Yosuke Shohara who works for Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Taddy now a teacher in Gifu, has inspired his high school students, Taiga Ueto to enrol in Filipino at Handai. They are but some examples of the seeds that we have planted many years ago. And now, one of our former graduates is now in the faculty, Prof. Kimi Yamoto.

The last batch of sophomore students that I taught included Ayu, (L) Sae (Graiza), Ayaka (Beth), Chisato (Emily), Mitsuki (Ronaldo), Mizuna (Katrina), Nami (May), Ayami (Natalie), Risa (Gaspar), Eri (Elly), Jun (John), Ayane (Marsha) and Rika (Rosas). I am also very grateful to Dr. Gyo Miyahara and Prof. Satoshi Miyawaki and his wife Takako, for sharing us the warmth of their family every time we held Filipino cooking parties of adobo, pinakbet and pancit!

Like the avocado tree, it will take 5 or 10 more years before the fruits will come out. It is my fervent hope that these seeds (the next generation of Filipino majors) will be nurtured with just the right amount of sunlight and water so that we can taste the fruits of our labor and that they will not only be competent and fluent in Filipino but will become competitive in the real rat race without forgetting cultural values in a global setting!