Department of English

教員紹介

　２００７年に学科の一員となって以来，イギリスの歴史と文化を教えている石塚です。専修大学に来る前は，イギリスで歴史を勉強し博士号を取得し，帰国した後は云々。つまらない？ごもっとも。それではこちらを。

　１２の頃，試験の成績が思いのほかよかったご褒美としてラジカセを買ってもらった。２階の部屋に駆け上がりわくわくしながらスウィッチをオンにすると聞いたこともない音楽が耳に入ってきた。一瞬にして時が止まり，もう後戻りのできない所にいた。今にして思えば，これこそが英語人生の始まりをつげる笛だった。アイドル中のアイドル「ベイシティーローラーズ」の曲，「ロックンロール・ラヴレター」がその正体だったのだが，一階の居間では，「着てはもらえぬセーターを涙こらえて編んでいる」救いようのない女の悲哀を唄う演歌がいつものように流れていたのだから，天と地がひっくり返ってもおかしくはない。

　なぜチープな「ローラーズ」でもよかったのか。洋楽などとは縁遠いど田舎だったからこそとしかいいようがない。「ロックンロール」と「着てはもらえぬセーター」との遠さといったら地球と火星の距離よりも遠く感じられ，だからこそハッとしたのだ。

　なんでも自分色に染めてしまうグローバリゼーションにあっては，こうした気づきの経験はそれこそ遠のいてしまったようだ。グローバル化社会へのチケットと目される「コミュニケーション英語」さえできれば人生バラ色，鬼に金棒と思っている学生の皆さん，そんなことはありません。それが単なる幻想であると気づくことから始めてはいかが。お節介ながら，そのためのお手伝いをいたしましょう。

　　I am Ishizuka Hisao. I have been teaching British History and Culture since I joined our department in 2007. Before coming to Senshu, I spent several years in England studying history. After receiving my PhD in History, I returned to Japan and... Oh sorry, this is quite boring. Let me tell you a childhood memory of mine which may help you to have an idea of who I am.

　　I have a vivid memory of the day when I turned twelve. My parents purchased me a brand-new radio cassette recorder that I had expected to have in reward for satisfactory results of exams. Rushing into a room upstairs, I turned it on with a thrilled hand; then a strange and shocking tune from the radio struck me with full force. I was suspended for a moment, carried off to another world and came back to earth. 'Rock N' Roll Love Letter' was the identity of the sound that transported me. It was a Western pop song by The Bay City Rollers, a Scottish pop band, now forgotten but extremely popular among teens of the 70s. My lifelong career of English began with this, although I had started learning 'This is a pen' -like English at school. Downstairs my parents were listening to an Enka-song, which told a sad, hopeless story about a woman who knit a sweater her lover would never wear, while upstairs 'Rollers' were roaring with the hot sound of Rock 'n' Roll. What a world of difference!

　　It remains a mystery why the cheap, gooey sounds of 'Rollers' caught my ears; it was not the sounds of The Beatles or Queen that initiated me into a world of English. All I can say is that without such a huge gap between us (Japanese) and them (Westerners) it would have not happened. The difference between 'the sweater never worn by her lover' and 'Rock N' Roll Love Letter' was so vast that it reminded me how far it was from the Earth to Mars. However, it was precisely this gap that brought me a sense of wonder, a wonder at something different and something unfamiliar, upon which my imagination took flight. I suspect that our globalised society has been losing touch with this kind of wonder because of an excess of information. Globalisation has melted the differences between cultures into a unity in accordance with American standards.

　　What I want you Senshu students to do is to find a world of difference and of otherness, not by learning the globalised English with which you are supposed to be empowered, but by unlearning it (through this process you are made aware of the simple fact that it is not so; it only leads you to a 'dead' homogeneous world). This world of difference and otherness is the place where you can start, and all you need to do is to swing yourself to the rhythm that you come across, however shabby it may be.