18th Annual International Understanding and Cooperation Essay Contest
Elementary School Competition Winning Work

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Eyes Both Blue and Brown

by Yuna Fukasawa
Sixth Grader, Yawata Elementary School

I have a little brother. He asked me something a while ago-

"Aren't blue eyes scary?"

I still remember his question, even today. It shocked me that much. By "blue eyes," my brother was talking about our English conversation teacher, who I really like. What he said made me very sad. Why should different color eyes be scary, anyway? What an awful thing to say! It's racial discrimination, and I couldn't excuse it then, not even now.

"They're not scary at all!" I burst out at him, glaring.

As if realizing that he had just done a major no-no, my little brother looked like he was about to start crying. But I wouldn't buy it. I asked him why he said such a remark: apparently the eyes of the monster in the movie Alien were blue. That was it, nothing more. So after he saw that movie he started to be scared of our teacher's eyes, even though his eyes obviously look nothing like the alien's. But those two pairs of eyes must have seemed exactly the same for my brother, who's still just as afraid of scary stories now as he was back then. But now, though, he enjoys going to his English classes so much, he barely believes that he could have ever said such a thing.

"You can say as much with your eyes as with your mouth." In other words, eyes can express emotions just like words can. My little brother was so afraid of our teacher's eyes that he couldn't even see into those eyes. His mind was set and his mind was shut-even though our teacher's eyes have always been so tender and friendly. What exactly made my little brother later open his heart, he told me, was when our teacher praised him in Japanese. It was then that he first realized that our teacher could understand his own Japanese, and so he finally was able to really see the teacher's eyes for what they were. It was right after that that the two began to open their hearts to each other.

Actually, the reason I started to go to those English classes myself also has to do with eyes. Exactly opposite my brother, I was afraid of "brown eyes" back then. I never really could ask if I could join in with the other kids, because whenever I invited them to play, they would always tell me, "No way!" So I started to be scared of their brown eyes. But the first time I met my blue-eyed teacher, we joined hands and sang songs together, just like friends. I didn't understand the words, but just looking at my teacher's blue eyes I was able to be at ease. The kids in my English conversation class all come from different schools and have different ages. But I was still able to make lots of friends at my teacher's class. Eye color had nothing to do with anything. Sometimes we couldn't understand each other's languages, but that's okay, too. What I'm able to do now if I meet other kids that think that blue eyes or black eyes are scary- just like my brother and I used to think-is to teach them that that's not the way it is-just like our teacher taught us. I want be able to help other children who have trouble understanding different languages. And so I want to learn a whole lot more about English conversation from my teacher, because I know that one day it'll surely come in handy.