JAPN320S: Advanced Japanese Service Learning
Course Description:
This course gives students opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture through their community service and to develop communication skills through discussions, reflection essays and presentations. Taught in Japanese. (Credit/ No Credit Available) [Prereq: (Junior or Senior Standing) and (JAPN 202 or JAPN 300)]
Part of what makes being a student at CSUMB so interesting is the way we are encouraged to give back to the community through the Service Learning Program. While Underclassmen are encouraged to find any way to give back, the Upperclassmen are challenged to find a way to apply what they've learned with their major to helping the community. As you might imagine, there are very few ways to apply an extensive knowledge of Japanese Language and Culture to community service, but our department very luckily has connections with the Community Partnership for Youth (CPY), an after-school program that helps children in local elementary schools who might be pulled into a life of trouble. Over the course of this semester, I spent thirty hours teaching the children of King Elementary School in Seaside, CA.
Our first hurdle was deciding exactly what it was we would be doing at each visit. We were tasked with teaching the children about Japanese Culture, but if we tried to make our lessons too long, we would: 1, have bored, rowdy children on our hands, and 2, prevent the kids from having a chance to get help on their homework. The balance we eventually found was as follows: our group would arrive at 2:15, help the kids with homework until about 2:50, when we would go set up our classroom for the lesson, which would begin promptly at 3:00 and last until 4:00, just before the first of the parents would arrive to pick up their kids.
Next we had to decide exactly what we would be teaching the kids. We wanted our lessons to be fun, so that the kids would want to learn, but we had to make sure that they were not, as our adviser suggested, "too much fun," or actually use the word "fun" in describing the plan. What we needed to focus on, she said, was stimulating the kids. I personally wanted to make sure that the kids were actually retaining the knowledge as well. With these parameters in mind, we started each class with a review of the past week's topic. I would print out a vocabulary sheet each week so the kids had something to study off of, and we would give little themed erasers to the kids who were able to remember the material. One of our kids in particular loved learning Japanese words, and was always the first to raise his hand in the review sections. As the weeks went on, he set a sort of bar for the other kids to work towards. Then, after the review, we would proceed with our main lesson. The topics varied--we started with making name cards and teaching katakana, but we also taught about cultural events such as Moon-viewing, Japanese New Years, and Kabuki. Mixed in between the big cultural events, we taught concepts like numbers, colors, and directions, then attached fun games to each, so that the kids would more easily remember the words. For the colors, we did origami, and for the directions, we played games such as hide-and-seek, or Pin the Tail on the Moon Rabbit, and encouraged the kids to only give direction in Japanese. Even weeks later, the kids still remembered their lefts and rights in Japanese.
I was lucky to be blessed with a stellar team of peers for our lessons. They worked so hard each week to make sure we had all the supplies our lesson required, and that they knew the material and lesson plan inside and out. We also had the expertise of the CPY staff helping us out. I was so impressed with how each staff member knew the names of each child in the program. These people truly cared about the kids they were helping, and it was obvious in the care they took to make sure the children were doing precisely what they needed to do.
Overall, this program gave me a good amount of ideas to reflect on. The topic that most affected me was the idea of what it really meant to serve. Our class read three articles in particular that attempted to define service, and the message from those articles is what stuck with me the most. The final definition I came to, and the one that I stuck with for the rest of the semester, was that in order to truly serve someone, you must understand that your work does not put you above the person you are serving. Yes, you are performing a good deed, and you probably have good intentions, but the moment you equate your actions with raising you above the people you are serving, you are no longer serving them, you are patronizing them. In the same breath, you are not putting yourself below them, as that would be opening yourself to manipulation and will that would not actually help anyone. Instead, you should endeavor to see yourself as equal to the person you are serving. I recall specifically someone suggesting that we are all humans, we may as well put each other on equal ground. That's surprisingly hard to do when you're fifteen years older than the people you're serving. I struggled weekly against my urge to end all of my sentences with "but you'll understand that when you're older." These kids came from a different background than I did, and to say something like that would be to deny their experiences as people. So instead I tried to learn from them as much as I tried to teach them. They were constantly candid with me, so I tried to be candid with them. I censored only the ideas that I thought were inappropriate, and tried to have good conversations with the topics that were left. I had debates over the morality of superheroes and supervillains; the kids brought up points that I hadn't considered, or brushed aside because I thought I understood the intricacies of human motivation. I could never have had those conversations with adults. I thought I was bad with kids, but I think I was just bad with the idea of being the older, smarter adult in the room. When I took away that difference, I got along with the kids far more easily, and I think it really helped our lessons.
More than anything, this class taught me about social responsibility, and my part in social justice. These kids were on the verge of being marginalized because of factors they couldn't hope to control, and the odds of them fighting to get what they needed out of school were low. Just meeting with them once a week for three months had a huge effect on them, and their development. We spoke in our discussions about how actions done to aid individuals will aid the group, and the changes that happen to the group will eventually spread to the community, and from the community, it could build to affect society. We will literally never know what just one little action will do, but I do know that it never hurts to be nice to someone. When we recognize social injustice, we should work to fix it, and teach others to fix it too.
At first, I was angry that I had to teach as part of my service learning. Teaching is the one thing I do not want to do with my degree, and I felt as thought I was being pigeon-holed into a preset notion of what my major was supposed to look like. It took me a while to try to understand the reasoning behind our participation, and once I made the effort to understand, I began to look at what I was being asked to do differently. Now, after the experience, I can tell you without a doubt that I would do it all again in a heartbeat. This was an amazing experience, and I think it really improved me as a person.
This course gives students opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture through their community service and to develop communication skills through discussions, reflection essays and presentations. Taught in Japanese. (Credit/ No Credit Available) [Prereq: (Junior or Senior Standing) and (JAPN 202 or JAPN 300)]
Part of what makes being a student at CSUMB so interesting is the way we are encouraged to give back to the community through the Service Learning Program. While Underclassmen are encouraged to find any way to give back, the Upperclassmen are challenged to find a way to apply what they've learned with their major to helping the community. As you might imagine, there are very few ways to apply an extensive knowledge of Japanese Language and Culture to community service, but our department very luckily has connections with the Community Partnership for Youth (CPY), an after-school program that helps children in local elementary schools who might be pulled into a life of trouble. Over the course of this semester, I spent thirty hours teaching the children of King Elementary School in Seaside, CA.
Our first hurdle was deciding exactly what it was we would be doing at each visit. We were tasked with teaching the children about Japanese Culture, but if we tried to make our lessons too long, we would: 1, have bored, rowdy children on our hands, and 2, prevent the kids from having a chance to get help on their homework. The balance we eventually found was as follows: our group would arrive at 2:15, help the kids with homework until about 2:50, when we would go set up our classroom for the lesson, which would begin promptly at 3:00 and last until 4:00, just before the first of the parents would arrive to pick up their kids.
Next we had to decide exactly what we would be teaching the kids. We wanted our lessons to be fun, so that the kids would want to learn, but we had to make sure that they were not, as our adviser suggested, "too much fun," or actually use the word "fun" in describing the plan. What we needed to focus on, she said, was stimulating the kids. I personally wanted to make sure that the kids were actually retaining the knowledge as well. With these parameters in mind, we started each class with a review of the past week's topic. I would print out a vocabulary sheet each week so the kids had something to study off of, and we would give little themed erasers to the kids who were able to remember the material. One of our kids in particular loved learning Japanese words, and was always the first to raise his hand in the review sections. As the weeks went on, he set a sort of bar for the other kids to work towards. Then, after the review, we would proceed with our main lesson. The topics varied--we started with making name cards and teaching katakana, but we also taught about cultural events such as Moon-viewing, Japanese New Years, and Kabuki. Mixed in between the big cultural events, we taught concepts like numbers, colors, and directions, then attached fun games to each, so that the kids would more easily remember the words. For the colors, we did origami, and for the directions, we played games such as hide-and-seek, or Pin the Tail on the Moon Rabbit, and encouraged the kids to only give direction in Japanese. Even weeks later, the kids still remembered their lefts and rights in Japanese.
I was lucky to be blessed with a stellar team of peers for our lessons. They worked so hard each week to make sure we had all the supplies our lesson required, and that they knew the material and lesson plan inside and out. We also had the expertise of the CPY staff helping us out. I was so impressed with how each staff member knew the names of each child in the program. These people truly cared about the kids they were helping, and it was obvious in the care they took to make sure the children were doing precisely what they needed to do.
Overall, this program gave me a good amount of ideas to reflect on. The topic that most affected me was the idea of what it really meant to serve. Our class read three articles in particular that attempted to define service, and the message from those articles is what stuck with me the most. The final definition I came to, and the one that I stuck with for the rest of the semester, was that in order to truly serve someone, you must understand that your work does not put you above the person you are serving. Yes, you are performing a good deed, and you probably have good intentions, but the moment you equate your actions with raising you above the people you are serving, you are no longer serving them, you are patronizing them. In the same breath, you are not putting yourself below them, as that would be opening yourself to manipulation and will that would not actually help anyone. Instead, you should endeavor to see yourself as equal to the person you are serving. I recall specifically someone suggesting that we are all humans, we may as well put each other on equal ground. That's surprisingly hard to do when you're fifteen years older than the people you're serving. I struggled weekly against my urge to end all of my sentences with "but you'll understand that when you're older." These kids came from a different background than I did, and to say something like that would be to deny their experiences as people. So instead I tried to learn from them as much as I tried to teach them. They were constantly candid with me, so I tried to be candid with them. I censored only the ideas that I thought were inappropriate, and tried to have good conversations with the topics that were left. I had debates over the morality of superheroes and supervillains; the kids brought up points that I hadn't considered, or brushed aside because I thought I understood the intricacies of human motivation. I could never have had those conversations with adults. I thought I was bad with kids, but I think I was just bad with the idea of being the older, smarter adult in the room. When I took away that difference, I got along with the kids far more easily, and I think it really helped our lessons.
More than anything, this class taught me about social responsibility, and my part in social justice. These kids were on the verge of being marginalized because of factors they couldn't hope to control, and the odds of them fighting to get what they needed out of school were low. Just meeting with them once a week for three months had a huge effect on them, and their development. We spoke in our discussions about how actions done to aid individuals will aid the group, and the changes that happen to the group will eventually spread to the community, and from the community, it could build to affect society. We will literally never know what just one little action will do, but I do know that it never hurts to be nice to someone. When we recognize social injustice, we should work to fix it, and teach others to fix it too.
At first, I was angry that I had to teach as part of my service learning. Teaching is the one thing I do not want to do with my degree, and I felt as thought I was being pigeon-holed into a preset notion of what my major was supposed to look like. It took me a while to try to understand the reasoning behind our participation, and once I made the effort to understand, I began to look at what I was being asked to do differently. Now, after the experience, I can tell you without a doubt that I would do it all again in a heartbeat. This was an amazing experience, and I think it really improved me as a person.