16 May 07 | 9:55a
Nice English – like Happy Teriyaki and Beauty Nails, it's another casualty of the English language in East Asia. It's also one of the classrooms I teach in --- and it's haunted!
The Nice English building sits on a busy street overlooking Yonago. It was a small hospital earlier in the century and was only recently changed into an English school. “Nobody died here.”, my manager reassures me.
With the old operating room changed into an office – no longer sterile white tiles turned gray, it looks like something taken from Silent Hill. The spiral staircase leads to a grizzly, abandoned 3rd and 4th floor – the ceiling reminiscent of a dead plantation home with brown swirls of water damage rippling through the paisley pattern.
I'm always alone in this building – waiting patiently for my perpetually late students – hoping I'm really alone.
Last night I taught an English class there to a small group of 8 and 9 year olds. The humid beginnings of summer have left a dank odor in the building, so I had the classroom door carefully propped open to filter out the rotting air. Without a gust of wind the door slams itself shut. My students were alarmed and looked at me for a reason. I shrugged my head and continued the lesson – once again propping open the door, but this time moving the white board in front of it. Again the door slams shut, the white board moved aside.
“Ghost house!”, 8 year-old Takashi shouts. The other 4 students agreed and continued repeating their English definition of what happened. “Yes, it's a ghost house.”, I casually said.
As soon as the children packed up and left for the evening I jolted out of there. I've always thought the old Nice English building was haunted, but now I have confirmation.
