Setsuko Iki may have retired in 1998 as a professor at Sanno Junior College in Tokyo, but she has not stopped working. As the leading Japanese authority on Suggestopaedia-Desuggestopaedia, systems of intensive language teaching initiated by Dr. Georgi Lozonov in Bulgaria in the 1960s and then developed in collaboration with Dr. Evelina Gateva over the next 35 years, she is busier than ever.
As a prelude to opening the Lozonov Center for Suggestopaedia-Desuggestopaedia in Tokyo in the autumn, Iki is organizing a series of summer workshops. One of Lozonov's most trusted teachers, Lupe Escamilla, is coming from California to give a two-week beginner's Spanish course from July 31 until Aug. 11. Lozonov himself will be making his first trip to Japan since 1989 to give teacher training courses between the same dates. He will also give a lecture Aug. 6 to explain his latest teaching development, Desuggestopaedia, and its application to children's reading programs.
Iki's personal resources have been severely tested in recent times. She married late, raised her husband's three children while continuing to work and study both here and abroad, and nursed her father for six years until he died at age 92. She is currently caring for both her own mother (90-plus) and her mother-in-law (under 90), and supporting her husband through his cancer. "How do I survive such hardships? Because Suggestopaedia -- and now Desuggestopaedia -- give me strength. I could never have managed without my deep belief in its power and ability."