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Site MapASAKO SAKAMOTONOVEMBER, 2017: BREEZE ISSUE #121
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESE2017 J-LEAP REPORTBY ASAKO SAKAMOTO
Robert Service High SchoolAnchorage, AKHello, my name is Asako Sakamoto. I am
currently working at Robert Service HighSchool in Anchorage, Alaska. Before coming tothe U.S., I was teaching Japanese in Thailand. I
applied to J-LEAP because I wanted newexperiences as a Japanese teacher and makemy dream of live in the U.S. come true, just likeI saw in my favorite movies. I have lived in Australia, England and Thailand, both as a student
and teacher, so this is the fifth country in which I’ve lived. I am enjoying the different and newexperiences every day.
The biggest difference between the places I used to live and Anchorage is that I can’t live
without a car here. There are some bus routes in Anchorage, but it is not realistic to use bus
because all shops and facilities are spread out around the city. It is difficult to catch the exact
bus to go to the place I want from where I am. I didn’t like driving but I had no option so I had
to get used to it in order to live here. Now, I have started to feel comfortable driving, and little
by little I enjoy exploring the city. I am trying to visit places I am interested in and findsomewhere I can call my favorite place. Anchorage is much different from the city I imagined: I
had thought cities in America were full of tall buildings crowded close together. But driving
place to place, seeing beautiful snowy mountains instead of skyscrapers is an Alaskan
experience I have never had or imagined before. Also, I’m enjoying activities such as attending
the Japanese Culture Club at the University of Alaska Anchorage, meeting new friends and ice
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skating. Now it is October and the temperature is lower than the winters in Osaka, where I grew
up. It will be snowy and icy soon, and I am part scared and part looking forward to it. I’am
especially looking forward to skating on the frozen lakes and seeing dog sledding.
My new experience is, of course, not only
living in Alaska but also teaching in highschool in America. Where I was teaching
before coming to the U.S.A. was Japanese
language school in which students came tostudy Japanese daily or a few times a week.
However, here, students are taking Japaneseclass as a world language elective class inhigh school. Different from high schools inJapan, students here have the same schedule
every day, so I teach the same students in the same period every day. People in Japan do notknow that there are many students studying Japanese every day in Alaska, far away fromJapan, just like Japanese high school students are studying English. I teach five classes a day:three JapaneseⅠ classes, one JapaneseⅡ class and one JapaneseⅢ/Ⅳ/AP class.
Four years ago, Robert Service High School had only three Japanese classes and 60 students.
The person who made these classes bigger is Zoe-sensei, my Lead Teacher. Now we have fiveclasses and 120 students. She still works hard every day to make Japanese classes in theschool better. I feel like I am running classes with her rather than just assisting her because wetalk and decide everything we need for each day together. Every day, we create detailed unit
plans and daily lessons together and share the work, like making teaching materials andteaching the class. She is very passionate to improve her classes for the better and isambitious to get new ideas, so we always discuss the lesson plans until long after class has
finished. It’s hard planning and making materials every day, but there are many things to learn
when I work with Zoe-sensei. I have never before made and used such various kinds of fungames and activities that are used in our everyday lessons. Also, I did not know that authenticmaterials, which Zoe-sensei is passionate about use as much as possible in class, could havesuch strong power to attract students. Students are so interested in real Japanese even if it’s
just a scan of a manga, a picture of a road sign, or a discarded food package. These not onlypique the students’ interests, but also motivate them to learn more Japanese.
After just a few weeks of learning Japanese, many students would not have believed that they
could understand some manga or anime, which is a major reason some of the students here
start learning Japanese. When they are reading authentic material or learning about real
Japanese life, they do not act like they are being “taught”, but instead their eyes are shiny andI can tell they are exactly where they want to be. I was very happy when Zoe-sensei once told
me that she also has much to learn from me. I hope we both gain new experiences and improve
our teaching, continuing to exchange ideas and opinions for the next two years.

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Breeze #122

Breeze #1212017 J-LEAP Report: Asako Sakamoto2017 J-LEAP Report: Yui Kimura

Japanese Language Update #48

2017 Teacher Training Program Participant: Colleen Laird

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