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2015 J-LEAP REPORT: SEIJI ARAINOVEMBER, 2015: BREEZE ISSUE #97
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESE2015 J-LEAP REPORTBY SEIJI ARAIMadison Country Day School
Waunakee, WI
Hello. My name is Seiji Arai. I have beenworking as an assistant Japanese teacher at
Madison Country Day School (MCDS) inWaunakee, which is located 15 minutes awayfrom Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. Ourschool is in the countryside and is surroundedby beautiful nature such as trees and a lake. Some people might say that it is inconvenient.
However, I think that the location is great for the students because they can enjoy thechanging seasons and this environment makes us feel relaxed. We can also see wild cranes on
the field in front of the school; it was the most surprising thing to see when I came to school forthe first time. There are 403 students at MCDS from Pre-K to 12th grade. Since this summer,
MCDS has been gradually expanding the buildings and the total number of students has alsoincreased.
With respect to foreign language education, MCDS provides students with the opportunity tolearn Spanish and Japanese. Spanish is introduced in Pre-K and is required for lower andmiddle school students. Some students even continue to take Spanish classes when they enterhigh school. On the other hand, some students begin to study Japanese as a foreign language
from 9th grade.
Currently, there are 39 students in Japanese class from 9th to 12th grade. There are seven 9thgrade students, fifteen 10th grade students, nine 11th grade students, and eight 12th gradestudents. MCDS is an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) school, which is a kind of prePrivacy - Terms
university program, so students need to prepare for IB examinations in 11th grade. It is quitechallenging for us to cover the IB curriculum in a 45 minutes class without making the students
just memorize required knowledge. We like to include fun activities as well. From 5th to 8thgrade, students can take Japanese as an elective class once a week. This class mainly
focuses on introducing Japanese cultures through some enjoyable activities, and 13 students
are taking it this year.
First of all, I was very surprised by thestudent’s super high motivation towardlearning Japanese. They are very energetic
and always show us an attitude that reflects
their commitment to the class. At thebeginning of each class, we usually have freeconversation time, which is called “What’s Up,”
time for a few minutes. In the activity, students
try to explain how their day was in Japanese,even if they haven’t been learning for a longtime, such as the 9th and 10th graders. Inaddition, there is no hesitation or shyness
about making mistakes, which might be totally different from English learners in Japan. They
even seem to enjoy communicating in Japanese in the classroom. I think that this factor is very
important and definitely necessary for language learning, and feel that such an atmospheremight be because of my lead teacher; Karen sensei’s policy. She has the belief that using
Japanese not only in the classroom, but also outside of classroom will help improve ourstudents’ language skills and motivate them to use Japanese, so she keeps talking with them inJapanese as much as possible. These daily actions might lead students to get used tospeaking Japanese naturally as part of their daily life and it might also create a classroom
atmosphere without the fear of making mistakes. MCDS has a sister school in Ibaraki
Prefecture of Japan and some Japanese students from the school recently visited MCDS.
While the Japanese students were here, we could see that our students were trying to actively
to speak in Japanese. That was great and I was very glad to see it.
In our class, we don’t use English very much when we explain the lesson to our students.
Instead, we often use body language and facial expressions, and we sometimes do imprompturoleplays. In addition, we have been trying to use various styles of collaboration in class. Oneof the most applied collaboration style is team teaching and it is often used to review aprevious lesson or explain a grammar point. The second style used in a class is the one teachone assistant. We switch between LT and AT frequently, depending on the lesson content, sothat means that I sometimes lead a class as a LT. As for other styles, station teaching andparallel teaching are used in our class to promote classroom activities effectively. Whichevercollaboration style we use, there is one major point of emphasis in our class. That is“enjoyment in learning.” Karen sensei and I think that having fun studying is a very essential
factor in language learning and teachers also need to enjoy supporting their students.
Therefore, we have been trying to use various materials and sometimes include ourselves aslive examples. We can become a bit goofy as teaching materials!
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It has already been about three months since I started teaching Japanese in MCDS and I haverealized that I am in a great environment to develop myself not only as a language learner but
also as a Japanese teacher. Students are great models who show me how I should face nonnative language learning, and Karen sensei also shows me what kind of teacher I should be in
the future. Two things on my list of goals as a J-LEAP teacher are to inspire people, and tomotivate them to go to Japan. Every moment is a valuable experience and I am very lucky tobe here for two years. I hope that I can achieve my goals in the short amount of time I am
here, and I am going to keep making every effort towards that end.

Breeze #98

Breeze #97

Japanese Langauge Education Update 24

ACTFL 2015

2015 Teacher Training Program: Sueyon Seo

2015 J-LEAP Report: Ami Kaneko

2015 J-LEAP Report: Seiji Arai2015 JET-MIP Essay: Claire Endl2015 JET-MIP Essay: Dillon Evans

2015 JET-MIP Essay: Nicholas Gallitano

2015 JET-MIP Essay: Isabelle Joyce

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