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2014 J-LEAP REPORT: HITOMI IKEYADECEMBER, 2014: BREEZE ISSUE #86
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESE

2014 J-LEAP REPORTBY HITOMI IKEYA
Roosevelt High School
Seattle, WA
The beautiful summer passed, colorful autumn came, andnow the rainy season has started. The rain is making theleaves fall and calling winter. Here in the “Evergreen
State,” we can enjoy four seasons like in Japan.
My name is Hitomi Ikeya. I am working as an Assistant
Teacher at Roosevelt High School and Jane Addams
Middle School in Seattle, Washington. I have been hereteaching Japanese for almost three months.
Firstly, I would like to ask you a question. What do you
know about Washington State or Seattle? Seattle Mariners
and Ichiro? (Even though he left for NY, but…) That’s all!?
This was my answer before I came to Seattle. Before I
introduce you to my host organization, please let me tellbriefly about Washington State.
Starbucks, Amazon, Costco, Microsoft… All these companies are headquartered in Washington State. For
these companies, Japan is a very important market. Japan is also one of Washington’s largest export
markets in the field of Agricultural, Food, Forestry, Fish and Marine Products.
On the other hand, there are some Japanese companies in Washington State and more than twelve
thousand Washingtonians are working for them. One example is Nintendo of America. Therefore, Japan
contributes to Washington’s Economy and Japan is one of the closest countries to the people ofWashington State.
The strong connection between Japan and Washington State can be seen in education as well. There are
more than ten thousand students of Japanese and many schools offer Japanese Language classes. In fact,
one elementary school near my host organization has a Japanese immersion program, so some students
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start to listen and speak Japanese from kindergarten or 1st grade. In this case, it is said that they will havestudied Japanese for more than ten years if they continue taking Japanese class through middle and highschool.
Next, I would like to introduce my host organization, Roosevelt High School (RHS). RHS is located about
six miles to north of downtown Seattle, and is near the University of Washington. There are about 1,670
students in RHS and almost 85% of the students are studying to enter college when they graduate. Talking
about language classes, RHS offers students five world languages; Spanish, French, Latin, American Sign
Language (ASL), and Japanese. Language classes are not an obligation, but many students take thembecause the foreign language credits are required for college admission. I knew that Spanish is the mostpopular foreign language and students can study it at almost any school in the US, but I didn’t know thatASL and Latin were also taught, so it was surprising for me.
As for Japanese class, there are four levels; Japanese 1, 2, 3 and Advanced Placement (AP), and there areabout thirty students in each class this year. In Japanese 1, we start to teach Hiragana and simple
greetings and sentences. In AP class, students reach an advanced level of Japanese and gain muchknowledge about Japan and Japanese culture. I have realized that foreign language classes in the USA
are very different from that of Japan. For instance I was not exposed to American culture nor was I
required to work on projects to explain American culture in my English classes when I was in high school.
This difference in teaching was the second surprising thing for me.
I am co-teaching with my Lead Teacher (LT), Tashibu sensei in all four classes in the morning and one classat Jane Addams Middle School (JAMS) in the afternoon. Tashibu sensei is an experienced teacher and hasa very powerful teaching style. She attracts students to her lesson by using various materials andstrategies. One day, we used iPads to research “What day is it today?” on a Japanese website. Our
students used the information they found to make a presentation to show the unique days of Japan, forexample, Pocky no hi (Day of the Pocky on November 11). Since we found that there was “Okonomiyaki nohi” in the Japanese calendar, we also cooked Okonomiyaki in class. This teaching style allows students toenjoy learning Japanese and Japanese culture. I am really learning from my LT about how to makelanguage classes more fun and how to motivate students to study more.
I am also learning outside of class. I became a member of the Washington Association of Teachers ofJapanese (WATJ) to improve my ability as a teacher and to contribute to the continuation and expansion ofJapanese Language Education in Washington State. This year, four J-LEAP members in Washington are
helping the board election of WATJ. My contributions are small, but I’ am proud of taking part in thisassociation. Regarding J-LEAP in my state, fortunately, there are four J-LEAP members including me thisyear. Therefore we are planning to work together not only for WATJ but also for each school andcommunity to increase the benefit of having J-LEAP.
It is raining in Seattle today. It rains almost every day during the rainy season and this weather sometimes
makes us fed up. However, thanks to the rain, trees can grow more and more, and keep themselves
beautifully “evergreen.” For me, these two years teaching Japanese here is a period to receive lots ofprecious “rain” to grow up like trees of Seattle. Although just three months have passed, I have alreadybeen learning many things and enjoying my growth. I am so exited at being able to learn more here.
Lastly, I would like to thank all who gave me this opportunity and who support me. I couldn’t have been
here now without your help. I’ll do my best to bring about a better result to the USA, Washington State, myschools and myself. Thank you very much.
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Breeze #86

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