Of all the stupid, idiotic . . . sumimasen. Stuart Keyes is my name. I'm not in the best of moods, though you mustn't judge me by that. I'm good-humored enough most of the time, but . . .
It's these damned shitsugen of mine (失言, slips of the tongue). Everything I say lately comes out wrong. It's been like this ever since my forced sōki taishoku(早期退職, early retirement). That happened a year and a half ago. Since then, I've spent most of my time at home. That's the trouble, maybe. I don't know how to talk to people any more.
For 18 years I taught at a junior college (短大 tandai). My field is Nihon-shi (日本史, Japanese history). But no one's interested in history anymore. Who needs history when there's IT? History's the past; the past is dead. Enrollment in my course was dropping, the economy was shrinking and, finally, to make a long story short (短く言えば mijikaku ieba), the axe fell (首切り kubikiri).