|
Letter of Application
Joseph Tame
It’s
now been nine years since I left formal education, with the
vocal opinion that university was all a complete waste of
time and people only did it as that’s what society dictated
that they “should” do. I decided that instead
of following the wool pack, I would provide my own higher
education by attending the University of Life.
From the
age of eight I had had the fortune to attend the Hereford
(Rudolf Steiner) Waldorf School. Back in those days it was
just like one big happy family, with only thirty students
and a handful of dedicated parents who devoted much of their
time to build the school up from a dream to the reality that
it now is. As my class was the pioneering year, the curriculum
was always new to our teachers. Because of this, school to
us wasn’t a place where we would go to sit in rows and
take down dictation, but rather a place where we would get
together with our friends (that included the teachers!) to
embark upon a voyage of discovery. In July of 1994 the eight
remaining students in my year became the first to take GCSEs
at the Hereford Waldorf School (English, English Lit, Maths),
before going on to attend either the Hereford Sixth Form College
or the Hereford College of Art and Design.
I took
a dislike to the Sixth Form College right from the word go.
I had chosen to study Theology, English and Theatre Studies
at ‘A’ Level, and GCSE Geography. I found the
lectures terribly boring and the complete lack of interaction
between pupils and tutors a complete turn off. In one year
of Theology classes I think I learnt more about building than
religion due to the fact that the window by my desk overlooked
the construction site of the new Drama centre! However, the
final straw came when, in the middle of my first year exams,
I was diagnosed as having epilepsy. The epilepsy I could handle,
but the side effects of the various drugs prescribed were
horrendous, and resulted in me undergoing a complete personality
change almost overnight. I blamed the doctors, the NHS, the
government, the education system, and anyone else who in my
view was a part of The System that had made me feel like such
a failure. I was one hour into a Theology exam when I just
thought, “I’ve had it with this rubbish!”,
wrote “fish” all over my paper and walked out,
never to return.
I had
grand ideas to travel the world, but these were soon put on
the back burner when I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime
in the form of a position as Trainee Manager of the world-famous
Wormelow Stores and Post Office, the rural general store where
my parents had done a weekly shop for the past 10 years. I
was seventeen – young, impressionable – and so
signed away the next five years of my life.
Eight
months later I took a holiday in Crete. It was fantastic;
the freedom of the open road, new people, new experiences
– all so exciting in comparison to trying to work out
how to boost sales of tinned soup back in Wormelow. Upon my
return to England (where incidentally, it was raining at the
time), I informed my employers that I would be leaving for
sunnier pastures. Thankfully, in addition to the fact that
their dog had eaten both copies of my contract, their son
was waiting in the sidelines to take over the business –
I was free to go.
I’d
decided to hitch-hike to Australia, but upon reaching Switzerland
I ran out of money, and so settled there, working in a hotel
11,000 feet up an Alp for 10 months. Following that, I flew
to America to work as a volunteer on a summer camp for adults
with severe physical and mental disabilities. That was an
intense experience, but with the help of 150 others my own
age from over 30 different countries, I got through it. Whilst
there I met an English girl and once again, my plans to travel
the world were put on hold. We returned to the UK together,
where, age 19 we bought a house and settled down in Torquay
in the hope that that would help improve our fatally flawed
relationship. Two years of saying “everything will be
alright next year” later, we decided that we had to
face reality and go through the pain of splitting up. I felt
that the only way that I could manage this was by having a
complete change of scenery, and so having sold my half of
the house to my now ex-girlfriend for a pound, I headed back
to Switzerland. There, after 6 months therapy through being
an organic farm hand, I returned to my mountain hotel and
worked for another three seasons. That was an mad experience.
In the daytime thousands of Japanese tourists would pass through
our resort on their way up to the Jungfraujoch “Top
of Europe”. Then, after 6pm, when the final train left
for the valley way below on the little cogwheel railway: complete
isolation. Not a single sound. No roads, no traffic. No-one,
except for thirty staff tucked away on the top floor of a
150-year-old hotel.
During
that time I became very interested in the Japanese guests
that would rush through Kleine Scheidegg on their whirlwind
bus-tours of Europe. They were always so polite, so friendly,
and so different. When I had the opportunity to take a six
week holiday between seasons it was off to the Land of the
Rising Sun for me - and since that time I have been completely
hooked on everything Japanese. Having completed my final season
in Switzerland I returned to Japan with a one-year working
holiday visa, which I used to secure jobs teaching English
in central Tokyo and as a general staff member in a very small
family-run B&B in Hokkaido, the most northerly of Japan’s
four main islands. It was whilst I was there that I taught
myself basic Japanese, studying for up to 30 hours a week
for five months until I could understand what I was being
asked to do by the owner who spoke very little English. In
late August 2002 my Visa expired, and so I returned to Europe.
Making
that BIG decision
Following
three months living in Italy, I headed back to Tokyo to try
to find a way of obtaining a visa that would allow me to work
in Japan. This was like hitting my head against a brick wall:
the restrictions were so tight that without a university degree
I had no chance of obtaining anything but a 3-month visitor’s
visa. I realised that it was time for drastic action.
Over the
past few years I have started to feel a little like I missed
out on something by not going to university. Also, (and I
kick myself for saying this), I have felt this kind of “us
and them” thing, “them” being the successful
people who have been to university and got their amazing careers
etc. I hate to admit this, as ever since I was 16 I have been
trying to convince myself that it makes not a jot of difference…
Since
early 2002 I have been thinking about how I could become successful.
My idea of “success” covers many aspects of life,
but one clear goal of mine is to become fluent in Japanese.
Ever since my first visit to Asia I have found something addictive
about this fascinating language. I always hated French and
German at school, but Japanese – why am I so hooked?
I don’t honestly know. What I do know however is that
speaking, reading and writing nihongo (Japanese) really makes
me happy. I also love to write, and so one of my dreams is
to become a well known author within the huge Japanese book
market. Despite the recession, there are still a myriad of
opportunities for qualified foreigners in Japan.
Of course,
it’s not just the Japanese language that I’m interested
in, it’s the culture too. At no other time in my life
have I observed a culture that is going under such astonishing
changes on a daily basis. Old meets new – you see it
everywhere, whether it be the 300-year-old teahouse in Odaiba
dwarfed by 50-floor mirror-plated skyscrapers, or the old
granny in her kimono on the train, sitting next to the teenage
girl in with her peroxide-blonde hair and Barbie-doll lace-covered
clothes. Never before have I felt so at home in a place as
I feel in Japan, and it is for this reason that I feel that
now is the time to get serious and go to university.
I have
a very definite idea of the course that I wish to do: Japanese
Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, Sheffield. With
the possible exception of SOAS, I believe that Sheffield can
provide me with the best education in my field of interest.
I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to sink
my teeth into learning all about something that I have a great
passion for.
It is
for this reason that I wish to do an access course at the
City of Bristol College. I chose Bristol having heard many
good things about the city from friends and family, and, despite
having only been back in the UK for 4 weeks I must say it
is living up to its reputation already!
Joseph
Tame
29th
April 2003
|
