Anna Matsushita

  This is a fiction based on my personalexperience at a univesity in Tokyo, back in early 1990's ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I first noticed her in October 1987, during the admissions interview at Zophia University in Tokyo. The English department, my dream destination, had a rigorous selection process—both a written test and an interview. Having cleared the written test, I received the much-anticipated interview invitation. I’d spent five years in the northwest of England during my secondary school years. This background gave me an advantage, but my motivations ran deeper than just fluency. I wanted to study linguistics, to truly understand the English language from every angle. My aspirations spanned teaching, translation, or even interpreting. I had a lot riding on this. The interview was to last just ten minutes—a brief window to define my future. How it would go, I couldn’t predict, but I’d prepared...