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2017 J-LEAP REPORTDECEMBER, 2017: BREEZE ISSUE #122
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OFJAPANESE
2017 J-LEAP REPORTBY YOSHIYASU HORINOP.S. 147 Isaac Remsen Elementary School
Brooklyn, NYKonnichiwa! My name is Yoshiyasu Horino. I am an assistantteacher at P.S. 147 Isaac Remsen School in New York. I am
working with my lead teacher, Kudo Kayo sensei. In Japan, Iam currently a graduate student at Kyoto University ofForeign Studies and taking the master course in Japanese
language education. Back in Japan, I taught Japanese
language to permanent residents from other countries andinternational students.
It is said that New York respects cultural diversity and I
really see that through my eyes. It is not difficult to findpublic schools that offer dual language program, such as Spanish or Chinese. You can also findmany Saturday schools for children who have diverse cultural backgrounds. So when you walkaround town, it is not rare to hear various people talking in the language that they most likely
feel comfortable speaking. Therefore, in New York, there is an environment which offers theopportunities that people can learn their heritage language. In Japan, this is one of the difficult
things to get access. I have taught Japanese language to permanent residents from othercountries and some of them are married to a Japanese person. And I have heard a lot of stories
that their children only can speak Japanese, because some of the parents think they must raise
their children only in Japanese since they are in Japan. However, this could lead their children
to have an identity crisis or a loss of ability to have deep communication with their nonJapanese parent. Even if they try to let their children learn their heritage language, it is quitedifficult to find a school which teaches their heritage language. Here in New York, theopportunity to learn a heritage language is guaranteed. I’am currently staying with a family
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where the father is American, the mother is Japanese and their son is biracial JapaneseAmerican. I experience a dual language environment in their house on a daily basis. The boy
gets scolded in English by the dad, and in Japanese by the mom. This is one of the strong
impressions I have while living here in New York.
The school I am dispatched to, P.S. 147 is theonly public school that offers Japanese Dual
Language Program (JDLP) in New York. This
program was started in 2015 and the current
teacher, Kudo sensei took over the teachingposition in 2016. The students’ backgrounds
are very diverse. Some students’ have amother or father who is Japanese, sometimes
both are, or they are 2nd generation Japanese.
Some parents are not Japanese, but they havestrong interest in Japan. Therefore, JDLP
consists of diverse students and theirJapanese language skills are also different. Because of that, teaching Japanese language tothose students is very challenging but Kudo sensei and I are doing our best to figure out whatis the best for our students. We currently teach Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades. The subjects
we teach are social study and science based on New York City Department of Education’s (NYCDOE) curriculum. This curriculum is designed as project based learning so it deals with realworld, hands-on content. The picture showed on the top is the 2nd grade class and we all went
on a field trip for social study. The unit we were teaching was “Community” so Kudo sensei andI decided to go outside of the classroom and let students utilize Japanese language in the realworld while walking around in the neighborhood. Our goal is to see how much we can let
students speak Japanese language in authentic situations even though they are not in Japan.
So my job as an assistant teacher is not only assisting Kudo sensei, but to plan JDLP curriculum
together. Since this is a brand-new program, it often takes a long time to make our ideas into
real classes, but this whole process is new to me and it is both dynamic and fun.
In addition to teaching at P.S. 147, I also have opportunities to assist Japanese language
teaching outside of school. As I wrote, there are plenty chances to learn Japanese language inNY and I have done and been doing volunteer work at a Saturday Japanese language school,
Japan Foundation New York’s conversation class or various language exchange groups. At theSaturday school, the students are all children from other parts of the city. I also have chances
to meet adult Japanese language learners as well. It is surprising that there are a lot of people
who are interested in Japan, which I did not expect to see since I did not have a chance toteach Japanese language outside of Japan. It is interesting to hear how they got interested inJapan and fun to talk with them in Japanese.
In the end, I appreciate everyone who supports me during my stay in the US. Kudo sensei isalways doing her best to create a comfortable working environment for me. Our school’s DLPEnglish teachers, Lepore sensei, Lee sensei, Figueroa sensei are always kind to me. Our JDLP’scommunity has such strong ties and they invite me for dinner or American traditional
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celebrations. I strongly feel that they care about me so much so hopefully I can return theirkindness in full. Fortunately, I am also blessed to have friends who are totally unrelated with myjob and their kindness has made my life outside of school becomes a fun time as well. Without
any of them, my stay in the US would not be such an amazing experience. I really thank you all
so much.
Thank you so much for reading!
ありがとうございました。

Breeze #122

Japanese Language Update #49

2017 J-LEAP Report: Minobe Masaki

2017 J-LEAP Report: Yoshiyasu Horino

Breeze #121

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