<Begin Segment 12>

DG: Okay. So you are now at USC and you're in music. And you went through the regular Bachelor of Arts program.

MH: It was hard because, see, I know I couldn't read the English. I can't talk, but, "Would you please read the textbook two thousand pages tonight?" Tomorrow is class. I couldn't sleep, though. Very, very hard for me because I have to see the dictionary, and then lecture, too. When kids singing, that professor said, "Kids is God's baby, not children." the dictionary says. So I said, "I never heard God singing." They lectured and think about those things, lecture finish. Oh, I had a hard time with those language. Such a language doesn't use the Seattle that time, but Los Angeles, USC teachers spoke such a language. Oh, lot of things stuck by those language trouble.

DG: Did you get discouraged at all?

MH: No. I wanted to do it, so...

DG: You were determined.

BF: Did you, were there many Japanese, other students at USC?

MH: Yes. At that time, one, two, three, three Japanese was there, Niseis.

DG: So they spoke English.

MH: Yeah. That's right. But I -- and then someone who helped me is a Korean girl. Korean girl helped me lot. Japanese people, I can't talk English, so don't bother me.

BF: But they couldn't speak Japanese.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.