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2013 J-LEAP REPORTDECEMBER, 2013: BREEZE ISSUE #74
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESE

2013 J-LEAP REPORTBY KANAE HIGUCHI
Waipahu High School
Waipahu, HI
Aloha! My name is Kanae Higuchi and I’m currently
working as a Japanese Assistant Teacher at Waipahu HighSchool (WHS) in Hawaii.
Hawaii is well known as a resort destination with many
beautiful beaches, mountains, and the Aloha spirit. People
are really friendly and kind. Because of that, I’ve never
had any major problems since I came here. Waipahu is a rural area in West Oahu. There is a beautiful viewof Pearl Harbor from the school.
As you might already know, people in Hawaii enjoy Japanese culture in their daily life. My first surprise inHawaii was that people here love Katsu Curry, which is Japanese style curry with chicken cutlet. And
recently, the traditional Japanese toy called Kendama is popular in kids in Oahu. You can see kids playing
Kendama almost everywhere now. It is interesting to compare Japanese culture in Hawaii and Japaneseculture in Japan, because some ideas develop differently compared to Japan. So I’m excited to havediscussions about the differences with my students.
Almost every high school in Hawaii, including private schools, teaches Japanese. Some of the reasons are
the large population of Japanese Americans and the many Japanese tourists coming to Hawaii. So HATJ(The Hawaii Association of Teachers of Japanese) organizes a Benkyokai, sharing information andteaching ideas, every month in order to improve and encourage Japanese language education in Hawaii.
WHS is the second biggest high school in Oahu in both the size of the school and the number of ethnic
groups. The school campus is so huge with about 2500 students attending the school. There are sevenforeign language classes (Japanese, Spanish, Hawaiian, Ilocano, Chinese, Samoan, and Korean) so thatthe school can meet the interests of all the students.
Regarding the Japanese classes, we have five different levels, JP1~4 and AP, and 400 students are curring
enrolled. After three years studying Japanese, students can choose JP4 or AP. There are several reasons
why the students are taking Japanese class. Some of them have Japanese ethnic background, some Privacyof - Terms

them like Japanese sub-culture, and some parents expect their children to be able to speak Japanese
because they might have a chance to get better job in Hawaii if they can speak Japanese.
There are three Japanese teachers in WHS. My supervisor is Mr. Smith and we have the following classes.
Japanese 1 (about 30 students in each class, 2 classes)
Japanese 2 honors (7 students)
Japanese 3 honors (17 students)
Japanese AP (7 students)
My challenge in WHS is to build up our AP class with Smith Sensei because it just started last year. And I
also want to encourage students to speak Japanese both in and outside of the class. A few months ago, astudent told me “I helped Japanese tourists who were lost in Honolulu.“ That's what I want students to do.
Experiencing Japanese in real life is the best way to motivate students and to improve their Japaneseskills. Smith sensei is also eager to get students to experience Japan firsthand. Some WHS students
could go to Japan through various programs since he started teaching Japanese at WHS and the school
has several chances to welcome many Japanese students visitors on school trips from Japan.
WHS became a sister school with a high school in Hiroshima this year and the schools will start an
exchange program next year. Students are really excited to go to Japan and welcome students fromJapan. I’m also happy to help to maintain good relationship between the two schools.
Lastly I would like to thank all the people who gave me this opportunity and support me to live and adjust
to my life in Hawaii, especially my supervisor Smith sensei and my host mother Deli Oania. Mahalo.

Breeze #74

Japanese Langauge Education Update 12013 J-LEAP Report: Kanae Higuchi

2013 J-LEAP Report: Hitomi Komeda

2013 JET-MIP Essay: Nanette Jackson

2013 JET-MIP Essay: Kapil Kanhai

2013 JET-MIP Essay: Sean Kim

2013 JET-MIP Essay: Kelly Kratz

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