Self-Study and Japanese Foreign Language Academy

Well, I have to admit it was hard first of all just figuring out what to do. So many ideas had been floating around in my head and while I knew I would be happy learning the Japanese language I never thought I'd actually be able to pull it off. Let me be honest. I know nothing-- out of the entire wealth of information that exists in Japanese, I can use but a small percentage. However, this doesn't mean I haven't been successful thus far. I think I'd be comfortable expressing myself in Japanese. And I have learned what it is like to learn when you pick something right out of the context and understand it. That doesn't leave you. In the sense that learning has become easier for me, I have thus far been very successful. Let me go back to where I really got this project rolling.

Back last January I enlisted the help of Ms. Benton, the recent seventh grade science teacher as my mentor for Senior Exhibit. This was possibly the best decision I've made even up until now in this process. I had been told that Ms. Benton knew Japanese and could speak it well. Seeing this as an opportunity I wouldn't have otherwise, I approached her, explained everything, and from the start Ms. Benton was more than helpful. We talked about Japanese a little bit (I had played with Rosetta Stone before and learned say, many words, and a few things about the language), and she let me know how to start learning. I had to learn Hiragana and Katakana, the two most basic uniquely Japanese alphabets used in the language. Ms. Benton hooked me up in some way with all the resources I would need to be successful. She recommended I order "Let's Learn Hiragana" and "Let's Learn katakana," two different alphabet guidebooks I have to say were more helpful than online resources by far. She had me order Tuttle Language Kanji cards, which are pretty useful for learning Kanji. She also attempted to get me a copy of a book she used to study at a Nagoya University in Japan, A Course in Modern Japanese, but none were available unfortunately.

This was actually a pretty big deal. Had I picked up just a different book, and one like that I would have learned about Japanese in a completely different way. Every resource you can use to learn Japanese teaches you all about the "polite" form, (not that anything else is impolite) which is not commonly used in speaking. The book from Nagoya would have taught me plain form, and I think given me a better idea of speach. Even now I'm not sure I have a grasp on the exact differences, but I know I'd be able to cope with it somehow were I familiar with the rest of the material. To my ear, plain form sounds a little bit more casual and cooler, more free than the structured and polite form. If you're reading this, you probably have no idea what I am saying unless you've actually studied Japanese.

Ms. Benton gave me a book called Nakama, which has been pretty helpful for looking up grammar and constructions. I learned most of my previous knowledge from a grammar book in Romaji (Roman Letters) which served as a major base for understanding. Looking back on it, this may have also been a better choice than my next one. But either way, I can't say what I did was bad. On a trip I took to UVA after I heard about their great Japanese program, I broused the bookstore and found textbooks used for the Japanese language. I was very happy. These were all nice books. Workbooks, furigana dictionaries, more things I like to have remembered, but nevertheless this was nice. I got concerned about prices, and taking a step back and looking at where I was standing in terms of study progress in the Japanese language (It had been maybe over a month since I got my first alphabet books and I just learned hiragana pretty well) I realized I did not need all these books. I overlooked the workbooks, dictionaries, higher level textbooks, and picked out Genki 1. It certainly looked nicer than my other textbook, was pretty to look at, had great lists of vocabulary, didn't get side-tracked by entire chapters on Kanji (but rather had the student just pick up on it through the book) and had some great dialogues and exersizes to read I felt Nakama didn't have.

By the way "Genki" and "Nakama" respectively mean "health/energeticness" and "friend". It's a close translation, but hard to explain. I think I have some level of understanding but can't say I know for sure.

I just stuck to Genki and maybe got through the first several chapters before the end of summer. I regularly spoke to Ms. Benton about my studies, how they were going, and how hard it was to get it done during school. I got to the point where it was easier for me to do it when I was supposed to be doing something else-- like when people asked questions on calculus homework I already understood or during lunch when I could have been socializing more. If I had to go somewhere-- on a bus or train, or take a ride in a car, I would bring my books with me. This is how I learned. I would look up little random things about Japanese online. I got software installed on my computer so I could both read and type with it. I'd pull up a word document full of Japanese notes between classes.

All this time, too, I was working toward the goal of attending the VA Governor's School Foreign Language Academies hosted at VCU to study Japanese. Ms. Nobles had given me information, possibly as far back as November of 2007 about the 3-week academy, and so I never forgot I attached a sticky note to my locker. That sticky note changed my life when I realized this would be a nice "learning activity" for the Senior Exhibit. I researched the Academies. It seemed to me in all the information I had read and picked out that the Japanese Language Academy (JLA) was designed for those who had never studied Japanese before, because Japanese was not typically offered in Virginia. Well, no it was not immersion like the many of the other academies (French, Spanish and German) and not based entirely around high levels of study like Latin Academy. It was, like the Russian, and Chinese Academies, made available to those who had never studied. Well, I got accepted, and in discussing the issue of my placement in the academy she volunteered to contact them as a teacher on my behalf. Well, apparently there were three different levels of study. I barely had a month left to go at this point. At least, I still figured, because I knew the basics, I'd be able to skip out of the complete introduction material.

I was wrong!!

Let me start out by saying that all of the students at JLA were interesting, and I wasn't really intimidated when I arrived at all. I was, actually a little but upset that I would be having no contact with the outside world for three weeks, as was stipulated in the rules-- this meant no computer technology (which I had loved using to study as well) no cell phones (what a great way to share quick information) and no phone calls otherwise. The whole point was really to be cut off so we could be involved with each other, but for me I don't see the point. There were some people who said they would be texting the entire time they were there however if they had the choice. So I understood.

Well we all had our little "get to know you" activities on the first day, which lasted for several hours. During this time, unbenownst to me, something had been going on. After all of these activities began to die down (which took a toll on you in Richmond in the middle of July) I heard them announce a few things about class placements. But what about me?!? I'd been studying. I wasn't even really considered. I spoke up and a one of the RA for our academy had me taken to the back for testing, after she asked if I was really ready for it. I went to the second floor of our dorm building, into one of the main gathering rooms it had on each floor. I was talking about what I had done to the RA Sensei (whom I would later come to know much better as "Nancy-Sensei of the nation of Canada) at about a mile a minute, nervous already about what I would be asked. This whole time I was thinking, I've never been tested. I have no idea what I know and don't know. What is this going to be like? and, I should have spent the past week learning the katakana alphabet instead of useless kanji! In the room there were two Japanese Sensei I had not met or seen since we had all arrived as well as one of the non-Japanese (gaijin, a wonderfully rude term) leaders of the group, whom I would come to know as Guthrie-Sensei. Already his infinite amount of knowledge began to bore into me. The very air was oppressive. It was silent. Like the silence before the storm. They were saying something. It was in Japanese. It was in English. Wait, what was that? I was asked how much I had studied Japanese. I still don't remember what language I was asked in. I realized it wasn't on my application. I used some awkward phrazing to say a little bit, and I think it came out as little-ly if that is possible. I then was asked a few questions and may have said, "wakarimasen" or "I don't know." At least I was giving them the language they wanted to hear. Then I was passed a sheet of paper. I heard the words, (I will write them in romaji) "yonde kudasai" or "Please read" Maybe it was "kore o yonde kudasai." "Please read this." Either way, Darn! There was some katakana. But no, these were words I had read before. Katakana is used to spell English words. I would be able to guess! Okay, one word, two, slowly... avoiding the gaze of the two Japanese Sensei who may have thought I should know more if I wanted to be tested. Then I came across a letter that looked like another one. A lot of them do. Hey, this doesn't make sense, I thought. I knew I had pronounced something incorrectly. The non-existant buzzer sounded and I was done for. I was told that I had obviously studied a little bit, but I needed to review the basics.

Guthrie-Sensei is someone I was able to get along with rather well. We actually had a share of disagreements, but I probably communicated with him more than any of the Sensei. He was in charge of teaching the "shokyuu" or beginner course. He did such an amazing job teaching I think those students advanced possibly beyond where I was after three weeks. Anyway, I was in his class for three whole days. I was bored, I answered every question, or at least knew the answer to it. I was trying to get moved out. I made a lot of friends in class, but it was kind of a drag. Guthrie-Sensei was probably thinking, Griffin if you go to the intermediate class you will DIE but he didn't say it like that. He was very forceful however, and I asked one day if, because I knew everything he was teaching one afternoon, I could move to the intermediate class. He was hesitant and spoke with the other Sensei. They had a "Sensei Summit" if you will. They agreed to let me try it out when I proved that I had knowledge of the afternoon activity.

Well, I heard that the students in chuukyuu, the next level, had had between one and three full years of Japanese apeice. Moreover, there were, if I am correct-- five other students in the class? I had just come from one of 20. Great. They were tight already. I hadn't gotten to know most of them. And, surprisingly enough, there was pressure. But at first, I just walked into a door and didn't talk much. I listened. I listened to what Sakamaki Sensei was saying. I wasn't sure, and I was able to get away with not talking for a little while. I am so happy at that momemt we were given a worksheet with some English grammar explanation. Great. I knew forms, I had rough ideas about how to conjugate (which means less in Japanese than other lanuages) several verbs, and I knew enough nouns to answer the questions. And, the only person who had just one year was sitting next to me. I still think our Sensei was happier teaching the other students more because they were farther ahead just because of the way she acted towards us when we didn't know something. I would try to do things on my own. We had to ask most of our questions in Japanese, and grammar explanations were in Japanese most of the time. I would have been fine learning the material in my native language and then applying it like in school. This was relatively murder. Flashback:"Griffin if you go to the intermediate class you will DIE." Yes, there was some truth to that. In the chuukyuu class I was succumbed to a lot of pressure from four of the students as well as the Sensei to basically, not hold the class back. I couldn't blame them. But it was a waste of time for me to learn in the shokyuu class. I knew about 80% of it, and I didn't come to JLA to learn two more chapters of what I could find in my Genki textbook I had brought with me. I'm going to talk about something besides the chuukyuu class now.

I need to tell what else we did to learn and discover Japanese. Every day at lunch, we spoke only in Japanese. I learned so much by sitting with the highest level of students when I could, and actually understood a lot of their conversation. I couldn't always figure out a way to intelligently converse, but when people would tell me things I would often use key phrases to convey my level of understanding that were simple. For instance, saying,"Aa, wakarimasu-- demo... sore de hanasu koto ga dekimasen yo" with a smile. "Ah. I understand, but I am unable to speak about that." Most of the people in the highest class were at least impressed that I had taught this to myself over a short amount of time, but where it might seem very impressive that I knew all this and learned it comparatively so fast, 45% of the students and of course all of the teachers, were way ahead of me and could converse well. So while I might actually earn respect from someone who hadn't studied Japanese, even if they fully understood exactly what I had and hadn't learned, it really didn't matter to many of the others because they could talk at times that I couldn't and I sounded like a pre-schooler walking around talking about pre-school things mostly-- only without the random outbursts in full pre-schooler fluency and joy.

One thing I really enjoyed was when the director (Sones-Sensei) was trying to explain to me which country Kankoku was. I knew it wasn't Japan, China, or a European country so I had a few ideas but wasn't able to communicate that. I was thinking Korea. And then the Sones-Sensei asked the question, "Rosuto (w)o mimasu ka?" I knew "Rosuto." "LOST," maybe one of the only shows on television where two character's Korean nationalities played a significant role on the show. "Jin to Sun wa Kankokujin desu ne?" Jin and Sun are Kankokujin (Koreans) then, aren't they? LOST is fantastic. I am glad that Sones-Sensei watches LOST.

The greatest thing I learned here by the way was not the language. We had immersion, we watched some great movies, a lot of silly Japanese youtube videos (yes, there are a l0t) literature class (we read translations), history, immersion activities (like Hello Kitty the board game-- and the illegal photocopy of the Hello Kitty board game with different peices). The best thing I learned was from our 20th century history of Japan lessons from Momiyama Sensei. He was a man who had seen so much-- very young when men in U.S. uniform took over his home-land, had seen the old Japan, the new, and the new America. He had learned English by working for the American soldiers at the end the 2nd world war. He had studied so much about Japanese-U.S. relations and had been involved with much of it after graduating from High School in America and working in the military. I kept all of my notes from his class. Many of them just silly little things about Japanese customs he thought we would enjoy. He was old, but he was seriously very wise. His stories told me something about the world, how America is perceived and why, he told me about human perception, why many of us think the way we do, how history can effect people, as well as the power of the most simple human actions. I answered a lot of questions as best I could and he was the type of person, that when he gave me any sort of praise, I immediately felt glad that I was looking at the world in a helpful way because I so trusted him to be right about all of the things that he had taught. You listened to the man and knew he had seen a lot, could tell he had thought about his ideas successfully, and could tell he was being sincere when he spoke. I think the words he shared with us will have an effect on me that will last my entire life. I know of the importance of empathy and understanding the situations of others. I will never forget.

At the end of JLA, after making all of our friends, after taking Sumi art lessons, after the interesting dance, after visiting Japanese Embassy representatives in D.C., after all of that, we had some work to do to prepare for the end. We had to demonstrate what we had learned. My teacher was very serious in her wanting me to do well. I felt like she was giving me too much obligation because I simply could have just dropped Japanese altogether after this if I wanted to. But I wasn't planning on it. I had to write an essay. I did alright. And I would say for the standards that I had for myself 6 months before, fantastic. I'll have to upload that later.

I really wish that the chuukyuu class had focused less on our projects. I felt the main focus of the class was to do projects with the information we were supposed to already know. Like one of the fellow students said in that class, "Well, yeah. This is all review for me." I just kind of dove head-on out of the plane and attempted to grapple with the concepts in mid-air while not actually LEARNING that much Japanese. My biggest surprise after moving into that level was that if a) I was actually able to survive in the class I would b) learn a lot more Japanese. I don't think this means that I failed in any way, and it certainly is interesting and has made me think about how I plan on teaching in the future. That's going to be covered in a different entry, but I learned some methods I think worked best and I plan to start using them more soon The next phase of my project is running at full steam, but I'm slowing it down to a crawl as much as possible and dissecting this carefully to make it work. There's a lot to do.

Anyway, I'll be sure to update this journal entry later with some more of my personal thoughts and experiences and I might add some examples of my work and talk more about how this effected me later as well. It definitely was a significant and major component of my Senior Exhibit process.