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2017 J-LEAP REPORTDECEMBER, 2017: BREEZE ISSUE #122
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OFJAPANESE
2017 J-LEAP REPORTBY MINOBE MASAKIKearny High School
Kearny, NJ
My name is Masaki Minobe. I was assigned as an assistantJapanese teacher at Kearny High School with Davis-sensei,
my Lead Teacher. Kearny High School is located in New
Jersey, just 30 minutes from New York City, by car. There aremany students here with diverse cultural backgrounds; manyof which have roots in Latin American countries such asPeru, Ecuador and Brazil. Therefore, I can occasionally hearstudents speaking Spanish and Portuguese as well as
English, which gives me an impression that I live and work ina multicultural society.
Students at Kearny High School can choose which language to study, with a choice of Spanish,French, Italian, Latin and Japanese. Currently, Kearny high school offers 4 different levels ofJapanese classes from Japanese 1 to Japanese 4 with more than 80 students. Now, we areplanning to set up an AP Japanese class and will work to create a new curriculum for that. We
are team-teaching almost all in Japanese so that students can learn Japanese in anenvironment close to an immersion program. Students in Japanese 3 and 4 will have a chanceto visit Japan through a school trip in March and April of 2018. Thus, Davis-sensei and I teachJapanese phrases and expressions that are likely to be necessary when they are in Japan astourists. Students will be able to use phrases and expressions, learned during classes, in reallife situations when they actually go to Japan. In addition, I already contacted my alma materand made arrangements for Kearny students to visit my high school during their trip in Japan.
By organizing a Japan trip and a school visit in Japan, Davis-sensei and I are trying to give ourstudents an incentive to keep learning Japanese as well as provide exciting opportunities toPrivacy - Terms
make real use of their newly learned language.

Outside of the classroom, there are two things I usually do at school in addition to preparing
lessons. One is to supervise Japanese club activities where I have been introducing someJapanese games that I would often play when I was young. I not only introduce Japanesegames by myself but also help students to plan and prepare things. Every week, student club
officers and I put our heads together and think about what we are going to do for each clubmeeting. My job is to make it possible for the students to do what they want to do by giving
them instructions on the type of difficulties they might encounter and how they should preparein advance during a particular session. Through the meetings, I try to make each Japanese club
event as ready and organized as possible and, at the same time, I help the students become
independent and acquire skills to plan and organize events on their own.
The other thing I do outside of class is talk to our students
as frequently as possible. Even during my breaks, I
sometimes go to the school cafeteria to talk to my students
in Japanese. My intention is to give them every opportunity
to use Japanese, which is not enough if they only use it inclass. I often speak Japanese even to non-Japaneselearning students, who happen to be sitting next to mystudents in the cafeteria. This way, I try to increase thenumber of students who are interested in Japanese
language and let other students know that Kearny HighSchool has a Japanese program and a teacher from Japan.
Outside of school, I engage in some activities regarding
Japanese language education. First of all, I attended anacademic meeting conducted by NJATJ (New Jersey
Association of Teachers of Japanese) and learned manythings, such as how to use anime in class. Secondly, I participated in a program called“Japanese Table”, held at Princeton University. This is an event in which Japanese guests anduniversity students, who are studying Japanese, talk about many things freely over dinner.
Thirdly, I participated in the ACTFL (American Council on the teaching of Foreign Languages)
Convention & Expo for the first time. There, I listened to many presentations made by leading
language teachers of many different languages, from all over the United States. Their
presentations gave me many hints about how to improve my teaching. I strongly feel that I canapply what I learned to my daily lesson planning and classroom management. I really want toattend the convention next year, too. Lastly, as one of the outside-school activities, I am
planning to set up Japanese classes at a local library for people who want to learn Japanese,but do not have a place to study. This way, I can contribute to the expansion of Japanese
language education in the area.
There are several goals I would like to achieve during my stay in America. The most important
one is to increase the number of students who choose to study Japanese at Kearny HighSchool without deteriorating the quality of education for each student. Next, I would like toPrivacy - Terms

come up with ways how I can make students grow as an active learner to be able to keep
learning on their own. Last but not least, I would like to get involved in the local community
more and deepen American people’s understanding of Japan.

Breeze #122

Japanese Language Update #49

2017 J-LEAP Report: Minobe Masaki

2017 J-LEAP Report: Yoshiyasu Horino

Breeze #121

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