Bullying

Last year I bullied a second grade girl at Izumi called Emika into auditioning for the English Speech Contest. The contest is held once a year with city, prefectural and national finals. My job is to help the participants at my schools practice. Emika had no special interest in English and the other English teachers were bemused by my audition pick. 

Of the six that auditioned Emika was easily the best and she was chosen along with another girl to represent Izumi. I got all the credit for finding her, the teachers said I'd "found a new star."

Emika was a member of the choir so it was easy for her to delivery a speech in a strong voice and she seemed smart enough to develop her English skill over the coming months. But I spend just a few weeks at Izumi every term and I couldn't practice with Emika during summer. I only saw her a few times before the actual contest, despite the fact that I bullied her into auditioning and promised to support her. 

At the speech contest Emika did better than she thought she could possibly do when I first asked her to audition - having one of the strongest voices and not making any mistakes. Unfortunately she didn't place but she felt proud of herself and I did too. A modest second grader who stepped up to the challenge and did a damn good job. Emika told me that she might try again next year and that made me happier than anything. 

I gave her a giant novelty pencil as a prize and months passed and there was a massive earthquake on March 11th. 

For the first time since the earthquake I'm back at Izumi and the speech contest auditions are tomorrow. Emika won't be there. Her family evacuated to the south after the nuclear plant explosion and I probably can't bully them into coming back.