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A Very Able Man

Hirotada Ototake is a happy, successful man. He graduated
from Waseda University, one of Japan's top universities. While
he was a student there, he played a lot of sports. After graduating,
he worked as a sports journalist. 1 Then, in 1998, he wrote a book
5 about his life. This book became a bestseller2 in Japan.
Mr. Ototake, or "Oto," as his friends call him, has a disability. 3
He was born with a condition4 called tetra-amelia. It is a rare
condition, and children with tetra-amelia are born without
arms or legs.
10 As a young boy, Oto's parents sent him to a regular school.
They didn't want him to go to a special school for children with
disabilities. Oto says that it is sometimes hard for people to feel
comfortable around someone with disabilities. By going to a
regular school, Oto helped his classmates learn about people with
15 disabilities. He showed them that people with disabilities were
just like them. Oto talks about this in his book, No One'.s Perfect.
Oto believes that if you want something, you have to work
hard for it. He worked very hard at school to get into Waseda
University. He also worked hard at sports such as baseball,
20 basketball, and swimming, and he worked hard to get a good job.
Oto got married in 2001, and he now has two young sons.
In 2007, he also decided to change his job. Now he works as an
elementary school teacher in Tokyo. He teaches science and
social studies. As a teacher, Oto believes that his students will
25 learn that people are the same with or without disabilities.
Did Oto's disability make him different? Actually, yes, it did.
It taught him to be strong and to work hard, and that made him
able to do many things. Oto shows us that anything is possible if • Map page 104
you work hard enough.

t;;:/; Word Count: 312 : ReadingTime: _ _ _ : WordsperMinute: _ __

j (Minutes) j (Word Count/Reading Time) I
Culture and
Language Notes
page 90

1 journalist news writer

2 bestseller a book that sells very well; a very popular book
3 disability a problem that means you cannot use a part of your body completely
4 condition medical problem

63
 Chapter 11 I Culture and Language Notes
Waseda University, Japan
Total number of students: 54,179
Number of international students: 3,535
Number of undergraduate schools: 13
Number of graduate/professional schools: 22

No One's Perfect The book No One's Perfect became the third-best-selling

book in Japan since World War II. It has been translated into English, French,
Korean, and Chinese.

Elementary school In some countries, such as Japan and the United States,
students go to elementary school for their primary education, or first years of
school. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, use the
term primary school instead of elementary school.

Chapter 12 I Culture and Language Notes

UNESCO
Interesting facts:
• More than 180 countries belong to UNESCO.
• The headquarters of UNESCO is in Paris, France.
• UNESCO sponsors many educational, scientific, and cultural programs.
• One ofUNESCO's most important jobs is to keep a list of world heritage
sites. These are important natural or historical places around the world.
There are now more than 800 of these sites.

Big Ben One of London's most famous landmarks is the clock tower of the
Palace of Westminster. The clock on this tower was once the largest clock in
the world. Today, it is still the largest clock in Great Britain. Big Ben is the
name of the largest of the clock's five bells. This bell rings every hour on
the hour.

90 I Ci1lture and Language Notes

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