Hello. You probably know my name or you would not be here. My full name is Rory Stuart Baskin. Rory means the King with red hair. Stuart means to serve the King. As far as I know Baskin does not mean anything. That name was given to my family at Ellis Island when they landed in America. The immigration officers could not understand the name and they wrote down Baskin. Baskin is a famous name in Japan. Do you know why? I may ask you in class!

I was born in beautiful California, but have spent time in many places. I have lived in California and New England in the USA. My first trip abroad (Please note that I use the word abroad. I do not like the word foreign. Many people find it very negative. I try to use words like abroad, overseas, international, and from other countries.) was to London, England. My father was a teacher and he lead a group of students there for three or four months. I have lived and studied in Bordeaux, France. I also spent about a year traveling in the Spanish speaking world.

I came to Japan in 1986 and have lived here since then with a few trips back to the USA. I am married and have one daughter. I like winter sports including skiing and ice-skating. I like to play go too.

While I do speak Japanese, I normally do not speak Japanese with my students. I think that English teachers in Japan speak too much Japanese or not enough English with their students. That is why students study English for years and can not speak it. So, I normally speak only English with my students.

My office is 321 in the Shion-kan. It has the Canadian flag in the window. A Canadian student gave it to me. Feel free to come by if there is anything that I can help you with or if you just want to say hello. If you can not find me and want to talk please send me an e-mail message and I will get back to you.

If you would like to email me, you can reach me at rorybaticc.ac.jp. This is not a link as I am tired of spam. Please change the at to an @ mark. Then type it in your message and email me. I check my email regularly.