ポール：僕、英会話学校で教えるのやめたんですよ。
私：やはりね。あの学校を牛耳っているのはお金にしか関心のないA氏ですものね。
Gyuujiru
Pooru: Boku, eikaiwa gakko de oshieru no yameta'n desu yo.
Watashi: Yahari ne. Ano gakko wo gyuujitte iru no wa okane ni shika kanshin no nai A shi desu mono ne.
Paul: I've quit teaching at that English conversation school.
Me: As I expected. After all, the guy who runs that school, Mr. A, is only interested in making money.
* * *
Gyuujiru is the verbalization of gyuji wo toru and means to run, control, boss, or dominate some particular group or government. (Apparently, when feudal Chinese lords concluded pacts or agreements between themselves they would tear in two the ears of an ox and then suck the blood.)
Paul (the Englishman staying with my family) was a veritable teaching machine last fall the way he would teach 10 hours a day and come home each night exhausted. We worried not only that he probably didn't have time to prepare his classes, but also that he might get sick.
The owner of his school is a skilled businessman. He has successfully opened branches in Ginza, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Yokohama and Kichijoji. On top of that, he has put all his energies into getting new students enrolled. Anna hito ga gyuujitte iru no dewa sehsei- gata mo tamarimasen ne (With that kind of person running the show it must be unbearable for the teacher). Hontoo ni gyuujirareru sensei-gata mo kawaisoo (One really feels sorry for the teachers under the man's control).
After going back to England for Christmas, Paul returned to our house in January. It was then that we had this week's conversation and he announced that he would no longer be teaching at the school.
There are countless eikaiwa gakkoo (so-called English conversation schools) in Tokyo. I wonder, though, just how many of the people who run and own these schools really talk to their teachers on the same level. I suspect that at many of the schools the teachers bijinesu ni dake kanshin no aru keiei-sha ni gyujirarete iru (are under the control of managers and owners whose only interest is making money).
I often see advertisements on the train for the company Paul used to work for. Without fail, the poster shows the smiling face of a Caucasian female. Indeed, I've never seen the company use a picture of one of their male teachers. It's obvious the advertisement is just trying to use the Japanese people's desire to be near Caucasian women (this is especially true of Japanese men)as a way to attract people's attention. I feel sorry for both the foreigners who are used in this way and for the Japanese who put them to such use.
Finally, two more examples:
- Kono kaisha wo gyuujitte iru no wa dare desu ka (Who's running this company, who's running the show around here? ).
- Kare wa itsudemo dokodemo gyuujitagaru'n desu (No matter where or when, he's always trying to dominate things, to be the boss).