<Begin Segment 29>

SY: And when you turned to teaching, then this was specifically teaching film now?

RN: Yeah, yeah.

SY: And what was that like? What was that transition like?

RN: Initially I liked it. I'd get a paycheck every month, that was wonderful. And it was teaching something that I felt good about teaching. But as time went on, I would get students of color occasionally, and some Asian Americans like Kyle Hata was one of my students. Anyway...

SY: So it wasn't really... I thought it was in the Asian American Studies program.

RN: No, no. It was a joint appointment, but I did more administrative things at Asian American Studies. And I taught one Asian Americans and the Media class that was for Asian American studies. But the rest of my teaching load was film, film television.

SY: Just film.

RN: Yeah. So it was fine, and Asian American Studies Center and some of the Asian American students I had kind of kept me sane, but it was the same thing once again. Teaching is only fun when you can relate to the students, and a lot of the students that I had, they were interested in making their three picture deal and going into Hollywood, etcetera, etcetera. So I had no complaints, but that was getting old. And so I was thinking of retiring early, that was a long time ago. And then I took a leave of absence and started working developing the Media Arts Center at the museum.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.