All you need is love. And English英語発音ボイストレーナーのおっちゃんぬさん

英語発音ボイストレーナーで、本紙の連載『街中英語クイズ』筆者のおっちゃんぬさん。学生時代に英語の魅力に目覚め、留学せずに独学でバイリンガルに。今も英語を話す時間を意識的に作り、世界中の人々とつながり続けるライフスタイルは、学習者に新たなヒントを与えてくれるはずだ。

Buddy Sato, aka “Occhannu,” has built his life around the English language. Sato’s English work is multifaceted, and uses multiple online platforms. From co-writing theses in Japanese to offering relationship advice in English, Sato is many things to many people. “I teach English and pronunciation to Japanese and do academic work. But I also make it a point to communicate with people from around the world,” says Sato from his home office in Kyoto.

Sato teaches online English from 12 noon to 12 midnight – that’s 12 hours a day, every day. It’s a no-fail, natural English maintenance method that has worked very well for him. “My schedule allows me to be drenched in English, whether it’s teaching, thinking, writing or communicating. All are important but if I stop having conversations in English, my ability to speak would go way down. I think that’s how it is with second languages.” So many people enjoy hanging out with him online that they often drop in to his online space just to say hi. “The other day, I chatted with someone from Germany who had just gone through a breakup and needed someone to talk to. I was happy to listen and hope that I helped out a little.”

Does he ever get tired of the English language? Sato’s answer is a firm no. “Since my first year in high school, there’s never been a day that I’ve spent not studying or learning English in some way or another. It helped that I started dating an American girl in my freshman year at high school, and after that I dated and married an Australian. I also worked the bar in a British pub for a while. Dating, marriage and pouring drinks for foreign customers shaped the way I engage with English.”

But Sato says his real motivation was triggered when he quit university owing to financial difficulties. “Being a college dropout was a huge stigma. I couldn’t even find a part-time job without getting snide remarks.” Sato then decided to study for Eiken Level 1 and arm himself with a weapon no one could take away. “I studied and studied and wound up scoring in the top 1%. I even got an award and was hired as an editor by a publishing house. That just doesn’t happen to a university drop-out, but it happened to me.”

One of Sato’s suggestions for English learners is to prepare for a long journey. “Second-language acquisition doesn’t happen in a day. It’s a long, long road and there are no shortcuts. Don’t treat it like a study chore or a task. Think of English as something fun because after a while, that’s exactly what it is. Relax and enjoy the journey and enjoy the friends you make along the way.”

Sato’s flexible attitude toward studying and learning English comes from decades of dedication to the language. “In school, English was my favorite subject and I had my heart set on going to a high school with an international course that would enable me to really study the language. But my mother had other plans. She urged me to go to a regular high school and study science and math. She won, I went to a regular high school and I lost interest in studying at all in my first year. But I still retained a secret love for English.”

Sato started hanging out at Amerikamura, the America-themed entertainment and retail area in Osaka, and started a one-boy tour guide operation. “I would just go up to people poring over their Lonely Planet guidebooks and offer my services.”

Unfortunately, being an ace guide didn’t tally with schoolwork and Sato could barely make it to his second year. “Even my English grade was awful. So I decided to study English like mad.” Sato sat down and developed his own study method, which consisted of learning an entire English textbook. The content was geared to top-level universities and initially Sato couldn’t understand a thing. Eventually though, he became excellent at grammatical structure and from there, expanded his turf to pronunciation, listening, communication, reading and writing. “I’ve never studied abroad and am definitely not a native speaker. But studying English has taken me far beyond anywhere I thought I’d go.” (Kaori Shoji)

Words to live by