A Tie That Binds Across CulturesPosted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Interviews, United States on 2014-01-15 19:14Z by Steven |
A Tie That Binds Across Cultures
The New York Times
2014-01-10
Booming’s “Making It Last” column profiles baby boomer couples who have been together 25 years or more.
Bob and Chiyoko Bermant met in 1973 as graduate students at the University of Kansas. Bob was majoring in psychology, and Chiyoko, who is Japanese, was studying linguistics. They married in 1974 before moving to Waukesha, Wis., where Bob is a professor at the local University of Wisconsin campus. Chiyoko works as a docent at the Ten Chimneys Estate and does Japanese-English translations for a local martial arts master. The couple has one adult son.
How did you meet?
Bob: She was looking for help with English grammar for her papers. One of my roommates was Japanese and told her I would help.
Chiyoko: Bob asked me to come to their apartment. I thought he was going to write in red ink where I had missed an “s” or the first person and it turned out he very thoroughly and patiently went over the paper with me…
Did you face prejudice as a mixed-race couple in the Midwest?
Bob: The only thing I remember was in Lawrence right after we were engaged we went into a Denny’s and they wouldn’t serve us. We just walked out.
How about Chiyoko’s parents?
Chiyoko: From the beginning my mother said that it would not work and nothing I could say or do changed her determination until the end of her life. That does not mean she didn’t like Bob. She saw me as a kind of war bride or mail-order bride.
My parents were divorced and my father was more open-minded. Once we were married, he just wanted to know when he was going to have a grandchild…
Read the entire interview here.