From Studying to Teach Others, to Rediscovering the Joy of Learning Tuesday, July 7, 2026 (Reiwa 8)

Today is Tanabata, the Star Festival.

After my fracture, I finally have time to slowly return to the studies that I had not been able to focus on before.

Yesterday, after visiting Bethel Hospital, I opened my TOEIC materials for the first time in a long while.

I worked through questions from Part 1 to the beginning of Part 3.

I was able to find the answers, but it was difficult to explain by myself why those answers were correct.

So I reviewed them while reading the explanations.

"Ah, that is how it was."

There were many moments when I felt that way.

It was the world I had faced almost every day when I was teaching English in the past.


At night, I read a book by Professor Aoshima.

It was a chapter about the dangers of methamphetamine.

Many unfamiliar words appeared.

I realized once again that there are truly many kinds of drugs, and that they have the power to greatly change a person's life.

The author did not say much about what happened to the main character afterward.

Did he return to using methamphetamine?
Or did he not?

In the end, he took his own life.

The weight of that story remained in my heart.


When I woke up during the night, I suddenly thought:

"I am an acupuncturist, yet I have not been studying acupuncture points."

I opened the thin booklet I had brought with me.

The twelve meridians.

When the Ren Meridian and Du Meridian are added, there are fourteen main meridian pathways.

The body has pathways along which acupuncture points are arranged.

The Lung Meridian of Hand Taiyin.

It begins from the lungs, travels through the arm, passes through Chize at the elbow, Taiyuan at the wrist, and finally reaches Shaoshang at the thumb.

Yin meridians flow from the chest toward the limbs.

Yang meridians flow from the limbs toward the body.

I looked again at the flow of meridians through the perspective of yin and yang in traditional East Asian medicine.

Although I had studied these things before, seeing them again now felt fresh and new.


At that moment, a single sheet of paper fell out of a file.

I wondered what it was, and when I looked at it, I found it was an old school handout from my teaching days.

"Homeroom Number"  
"Name"  
"Weekend Assignment Not Submitted"  
"Weekend Assignment Insufficient"  
"Assignment / Homework / Handout Not Submitted"  
"Please submit by the end of today"


At the bottom, it said:

"Teacher's Room, Ishikawa's Desk"


In an instant, memories from my years as a teacher came rushing back.


The work of an English teacher was not only about teaching lessons.

Daily assignments.  
Short quizzes.  
Weekend assignments.  
Long vacation assignments.

Checking submitted work and seeing whether it was completed properly.

Recording missing submissions.

Asking students to resubmit their work.

Thinking about students who still did not submit.


When the weekend came, sometimes just thinking,

"Monday is coming."
"I have to check the weekend assignments."

was enough to make my stomach hurt.


I tried to make the process a little less unpleasant for students, so I even put thought into the stamps I used.

Not only date stamps, but also personalized stamps with my own name.

Using the name "Tomoko," I had stamps with a smiling face for good work and a slightly angry face for poor work.

Even while processing a huge amount of assignments, I think I wanted to keep some small connection with my students.


Looking back now, the students must have struggled too.

But teachers were also struggling within this system.


I have thought about English education for many years.

Reading comprehension passages for entrance examinations.

Were they truly measuring the ability to understand a text?

Sometimes questions asked students to find answers from only a portion of a passage without enough understanding of the overall flow and context.

I sometimes felt that this was becoming distant from the true joy of learning English.


Of course, I alone could not change the educational system.

The students were working hard with the goal of passing their exams.

Within that reality, I could only do what I was able to do.


But now, I am studying once again for myself.

Not to make someone else pass an exam.

Not to teach someone else.

Simply because I want to regain the feeling that:

"Learning something new is interesting."

"Learning itself is enjoyable."


In schools, studying can sometimes become something painful.

But originally, I believe that learning is something that brings joy to human beings.


One old sheet of paper brought back the difficult version of myself from the past.

But at the same time, it also connected me with the person I am now, who has begun learning again.


Back then, I was doing my best with all my strength.

Now, I want to learn while enjoying the process.


From studying to teach others,  
to rediscovering the joy of learning.


#MemoriesOfMyTeachingDays  
#EnglishEducation  
#JoyOfLearning  
#TOEIC  
#AcupunctureAndMeridians  
#LearningAgainInLife  
#ThoughtsOnTanabata