The Tutor

Chapter 7: Never Assume

"You sound so good, Nick-san, I'm really impressed," Sumire said, hoisting her glass.

Nick smiled, unable to keep his pride from showing. He raised his glass in response. They clinked and said "Kampai," which was the Japanese equivalent of "Cheers!" and drained the very nice Riesling that Nick had opened when Sumire arrived earlier that evening.

"You are an amazing teacher," he said to her. "I mean it. The way you say the lines, so all I have to do is repeat them? And your diction is so clear, and you're so good at sounding like a man, which is so funny to say, but honestly, you know what I mean? You get the emotions just right, I feel it." He nodded in her direction. "I think I'm ready to start running the lines, like from the script." At her look he elaborated. "Like you read the other people's lines, and I read mine?"

"Oh, really? Like actually reading them?" She sounded interested. "You want to try?"

"Sure." Nick sat forward and poured them each another glass of Riesling. "How about one of the scenes between me and Minami? A really juicy one, like when they're fighting about her returning to Edo with him?"

Sumire nodded with enthusiasm. "Yeah, okay. Should I try to act? Or am I supposed to just sound like a--a machine?"

"Well, different people believe different things," Nick told her. "Some people think you should just read, no inflection, just straight, and I like that too, when I'm trying to memorize. But this is a little different, you know? I don't exactly understand what I'm saying, which is a first for me, so I think if you can emote, the context will help me. So if you think you can act your lines, go for it, okay?" He smiled encouragingly at her. The truth was that he was curious how Sumire would handle it. He'd never seen her really emotional about anything, except when she'd been angry with him a couple times, so this would be interesting.

"When I was little I used to fantasize about being an actress," Sumire confessed. "I mean, I guess most little girls did, right?" She gave Nick one of her small smiles. "This might be kind of fun."

So they began working the scene, and Nick was pleasantly surprised. Sumire seemed to already know the basics about projecting her voice, about elocution, about emoting just the right amount. She did have a tendency to talk too fast, even in Japanese, but that could be because he didn't speak the language, so it sounded too fast to him.

"Can we do one of the English scenes?" he requested. She still sounded fast, he believed.

"Okay, Mimi-chan, you need to slow down until you feel like you're going too slow," he advised. "When you feel like you're going too slow, you're probably just about right."

They re-did the scene, at a much slower pace, and when they were finished, Nick declared the speed to be perfect.

"You're kidding! It felt like I was crawling, like the whole thing dragged!" Sumire gasped. "It really wasn't too slow?"

Nick shook his head. "I promise, it was just right. So, now let's go back and do the Japanese scene again, and keep in mind the speed we just did, all right?"

Sumire nodded, and they redid the Japanese scene, only much more slowly.

"Wow, you're right, that felt like a scene from a movie!" she declared in surprise.

Nick smiled at her words. "And, if I may say, you're a natural. You should've believed in yourself and pursued your childhood dreams, young lady. You're good at this."

Sumire made a skeptical face. "Oh, please. There are millions of people trying to break into acting. That's not a competition I want to enter, believe me." She took a sip of her wine. "I love languages, I love linguistics. This is where I belong."