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2016 J-LEAP REPORTNOVEMBER, 2016: BREEZE ISSUE #109
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESE

2016 J-LEAP REPORTBY AKIKO INAGAKILakeview High School
Battle Creek, MI“Ohayo Gozaimasu, Pollard sensei, Inagaki
sensei!” “Ohayo, --- san”. It’s 7:30 in themorning. One by one, students begin toemerge in the classroom - some of them withsleepy faces, others with lots of energy. At
7:50am, with the bell ringing, the first period
Japanese class begins in Lakeview Middle School. ”Hai Minasan, Note wo akete kudasai!
(Everyone, please open the notebook!),” says Ms. Pollard, my lead teacher (LT), with a resonant
voice that magically gears the atmosphere of the classroom towards studying mood. Herecomes another day of a long long journey to becoming a Japanese master . . .
Hi, my name is Akiko Inagaki and I teach Japanese with Ms. Tracy Pollard at Lakeview HighSchool and Middle School located in Battle Creek, Michigan. Michigan is located in theMidwest part of the United States, and Canada borders it on the North. It is also facing theGreat Lakes and blessed with great nature. Now is a good time to enjoy the beautiful scenery
when the trees change color from green to yellow and red. Speaking of nature, I often meetwild animals such as squirrels, rabbits and deer in my neighborhood, which adds a lively touch
to the picturesque autumn landscape.
When I first heard that I was going to go teach in the state of Michigan, I did not even know
where Michigan was in the U.S., and it came as a bit of a surprise to me that there was a schoolthat teaches Japanese in the area. However, Michigan has the fifth largest number of Japaneselearners in the United States, especially Battle Creek, which has some major Japanese
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companies and about 400 Japanese residents. (Battle Creek’s overall population isapproximately 53,000, so that means about 7.5% of the Battle Creek population are Japanese.)
There is a Japanese commerce and industry association formed by representatives of local
Japanese companies. Every Saturday, Japanese school is open to the children of thoseJapanese families. Also, Battle Creek has a sister city relationship with Takasaki City in Gunma
prefecture and there is active interaction going on between these two cities. Some of mystudents in Japanese class told me that they became interested in Japan and the Japanese
language because they have friends from Japan, which shows that Battle Creek is one of theU.S cities that has strong connection with Japan. (I have recently heard that some local hotels
even offer miso soup and onigiri (rice balls) as a breakfast option to their customers.)
In Lakeview Middle School and High School,
students can learn three foreign languages,
which are Spanish, French, and Japanese. I
think it is very unique to Lakeview School
District that they offer Japanese instead ofother major foreign languages, such as
Chinese and German. Japanese is offered from8th (the final) grade in the middle school andstudents can join in the class of “Japanese 1”, which is the exact same class as the one in highschool, so the students who pass the class are given high school credit and can move on toJapanese 2 directly right after they enter high school. Currently, 26 students in the 8th grade
are studying Japanese.
In high school, a total of 5 Japanese classes are offered (Japanese 1~ 5) and about 45 students
are studying Japanese this semester. Due to the small numbers of students, currently Japanese
3, 4 and 5 are conducted in the same classroom at the same time. What makes this classunique is that it has 3 exchange students from Japan. At first, we were not sure about a good
way of how to integrate those students with the Japanese class, but these days we ask them toshare some of the surprises they had when they first came to American high school and also
introduce the difference between Japanese high school rules and American high school rules
through power point. The American students seem to be surprised by learning some of themajor differences and hearing this information from Japanese high school students first hand isvery new and fresh to them. They say it is very difficult and challenging to catch what theJapanese students are saying, but I believe listening to real Japanese high schoolers speak atnatural Japanese speed is a really good practice for them. Japanese students can also makefriends with American students who are interested in Japan and Japanese language. I feel that
this class serves as a place for stimulating cultural exchange by having both of them actively
interact with each other.
One of the interesting programs that the high school Japanese class participates in is called“Global Classmates.” This program pairs up one American high school with one Japanese highschool, and the students from both schools communicate with each other both in English andJapanese on the provided internet forum by sharing thoughts and opinions about the given
topics such as their favorite TV shows/movies or music they like. The students are thrilledPrivacy
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see the comments on their posts and are eager to know how to express their thoughts inJapanese. We are just preparing to pack some souvenirs to send to the partnered school andstudents keep bringing omiyage such as their favorite snacks and books they want theJapanese students to read. They seem to enjoy communicating with students from thepartnered school a lot, which I feel, serves as another incentive for them to keep learning
Japanese.
It has been almost two and a half months since I started teaching in Lakeview Middle/HighSchool. Some of my work as an assistant teacher includes teaching in the classroom, grading,preparing teaching materials, modelling the dialogue, etc. As a new teacher, I am learning a lot
everyday by observing the way Pollard sensei teaches and shows discipline in the class. I also
learn a lot by interacting with my students. Some of the difficulties I have learned aboutteaching in a U.S high school is that there are students with very different academic levels andbackgrounds/cultures learning together in the same classroom. I was surprised to see how
closely and sensitively Pollard sensei pays attention to each and every single one of thestudents and she always tries to find the best way that works with each students. Another thing
I have learned from her is how flexibly we can teach Japanese without sticking to the textbook
all the time. Depending on how the students are doing, she changes and adjusts what she
teaches for the day introducing fun activity or showing interesting videos. This was a wonderfulsurprise to me as someone who was only familiar with teaching while following the textbook.
We are also having fun teaching the students, which I learned could generate fun and positive
atmosphere for the students.
In the classroom, I try to speak only in Japanese as much as I can, and I found it very
challenging to communicate with my students as a new teacher just by using Japanese. One of
my goals is to establish a good relationship with my students and become a trusted teacher forthem. In order to do so, as a first step, I try to greet each student with a smile when they firstcome in to the classroom. I want to keep trying to talk to each one of my students as much as I
can so that I can understand them better and so that they feel like they can open up to me.
Pollard sensei helps me a lot when I have difficulty making myself understood by them. I reallyappreciate all the support that I can receive from Pollard sensei, my other colleges, bothschools I work at, and also the J-LEAP program staff members. I feel that I am very fortunate tobe able to join this program and I would like to become a better Japanese teacher learning a
lot of things during my 2 years here. My long journey has also just begun.

Breeze #110

Breeze #109

Japanese Langauge Education Update 362016 J-LEAP Report: Akiko Inagaki

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2016 J-LEAP Report: Sakurako Hiroike2016 Short-Term Teacher Training Program: Kristin Wingate

2016 Short-Term Teacher Training Program: Madeleine Graham

2016 Japanese Language Program for Specialists: Lin Li2016 Japanese Language Program for Specialists: Samuel Timinsky

Breeze #108

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