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Kosaku Narioka Back to Member Profiles main page He came to the United States from He came to the United States from Japan in 2005 to study English and find himself. Today, he's writing about Deer Park local government. Intrepid and philosophical world traveler, Kosaku Narioka, wanted to improve his English and to learn about journalism. So, he left his friends and family in Japan and headed first for the Georgia Institute of Technology and then for Pasadena, Texas, the home of the Gulf Coast Strawberry Festival. He impressed most Texas AAJA members with his resourcefulness, utilizing public transportation to make it from Pasadena to Addison last year for the new media workshop. Please describe your personal background - where you were born, where you grew up, where you went to university, etc. I was born and raised in Matto, a small city with 60,000 people in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, which consists of 47 prefectures. I went to Seikei University, a small private university in Tokyo, and read political science. After my second year in undergraduate, I went to study Arabic at a language institute affiliated with Damascus University in Syria for half a year. I managed to complete two beginner courses, thoroughly taught in Arabic. I came back to Seikei and studied very hard for a semester and almost completed my undergraduate work. By the time I received my political science degree in March 2006, I was already in the United States, enrolled at San Jacinto College. Please describe your professional background, including where you're currently employed. I started interning for a local daily newspaper, The Pasadena Citizen, after I finished my first year at San Jacinto College. I wrote a piece or two per week. I kept doing that for a year. I graduated from the community college last December and began concentrating on work, and they allowed me to cover City Council. A couple of months later, they offered me a full-time position in Deer Park, Texas. I work for Deer Park Progress and Deer Park Broadcaster newspapers. They are two different weekly newspapers. All three publications I mentioned above are part of Houston Community Newspapers, owned by ASP Westward. How did you become interested in journalism as a career? Through interning is probably the most adequate way to answer this question, since it is true that I was thrilled to have an opportunity to glance at so many people's lives and truly enjoyed reporting local governments. But I had fabricated answers to this kind of question probably 100 times even before I started the internship, and I always found ways to escape from this by saying like "I've been addicted to newspapers since I was in a junior high school," "I love writing and talking to people" or whatever sounds good. Life is a one-time thing. We really don't know why we chose this path. The longer I stay in journalism, the more reasons I can come up with - why I wanted to be a journalist. Then I'd say I happened to be interested in journalism. How did you learn about AAJA? Frankly speaking, it was through online research. On Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, I read all U.S. journalism related topics and some mentioned AAJA. Once I started living in this country, it didn't take me very long to realize what a crucial role interest groups, including those of ethnic minorities, play to protect members' interests in this heavily-segmented society. Why did you decide to come to the United States? I was "thrown into possibilities." I still remember when a philosophy teacher at my high school introduced us to Heidegger. Though I've never read him, I always remember this phrase, just this phrase. When I received a job offer in Tokyo, I was clearly able to foresee my future, probably a quite stable one, for years to come, which saddened me. I was not mature enough to appreciate how special it is to have a stable life with a somewhat foreseeable future. Through living in Syria and traveling to its neighboring countries, I realized how commonly English is spoken as lingua franca. I thought studying English in a more appropriate manner would only be a plus no matter what I would end up doing after college. At the time, I honestly thought I would stay just for a few months in the United States. How did you choose Texas? I threw a dart to an U.S. map. : ) I studied English at the English as Second Language Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. While I was there, I was somehow determined to be a journalist and to build up experience and connections in the U.S. media. I planned to get an associate degree just to receive a one-year work permit and I assumed I would be able to find an employer who could support my H-1B work visa. Department of Homeland Security grants one-year optional practical training authorizations to students who hope to gain work experience in the field they finished a degree in, regardless of degree's level. I went to CollegeBoard.com, ran a search through about 3,000 U.S. colleges and universities, and San Jacinto College was one of the most affordable colleges that offered an associate degree in journalism. The college's proximity to a metropolis (Houston) and the sea (Gulf of Mexico) were two appealing elements. What was the biggest adjustment you had to make when you moved to Texas? A town without public transportation was a big surprise for me. I had never lived in such a wild place. I had to buy a bicycle to commute to school and later to work. It was OK. I kept telling myself that I was saving the earth by not over-consuming limited resources, but I must admit I would feel miserable when it rained. Now I got my license and drive a Mazda 626! What are your plans for the near-term (2-3 years) and far-term future (5 to 10 years)? More than likely I will go back to academia to pursue my master's degree in the near future. I hope to be a better journalist in five to 10 years. Back to Member Profiles main page

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