Japanese Cultural Program Turns Students Into Teachers in New City

What started out as a transcontinental pen pal-type of idea quickly blossomed into a full-fledged Japanese language and culture course this year for the students at Little Tor Elementary School in New City.

The seed for the program was sown last July when the school's principal, Mi Jung An, went to Japan as part of an educational visit. During that trip, she formed a relationship with a school in Tokyo that was teaching English to its students and wanted a school to correspond with throughout the year.

At first, An thought the two schools would correspond back and forth and learn about the similarities and differences in the two countries'  cultures.

"It exceeded my expectations," she said. ". . . It became much more than the pen pal system I thought it would be."

That's because when An returned from the trip, she reached out to the administration at Clarkstown North High School to see if they would be interested in forming a partnership to become that corresponding school with the one in Japan. That, she said, grew into teaching the elementary school students some basic knowledge of the language and culture. Akiko Uchiyama, the Japanese teacher at both high schools, was bought on board and gathered a group of high school volunteers – about 20 each quarter -- to help teach the elementary school students.

The high school students went to Little Tor after school and taught the younger students for 30 minutes once a week.

"They had to make quite a commitment," said Uchiyama, who added she was pleasantly surprised by the number of volunteers she received and how serious they took their roles as teachers. "Some students said they wanted to go back (and volunteer again) and they cared about the little children."

Uchiyama and An developed an instruction schedule for each quarter on such topics as simple greetings, school life, food, holidays, games and toys, shopping, etc. They had an orientation session for the volunteers to discuss how to plan lessons and strategies for teaching the younger students. While the two adults helped the high schoolers and gave them some ideas, the students did most of the work in crafting how the elementary school students were taught.

"They did a wonderful job lesson planning and bringing in materials," An said of the high school volunteers.

"Some students created some amazing Japanese games and they were very precise and explained things very well," Uchiyama added.

Every student at Little Tor – about 300 of them – took part in the program. Kindergarten and first-grade students took classes for eight weeks and second- through fifth-grade students took classes for 24 weeks. By the end, many of the students were able to say simple greetings, count up to 10 (some even up to 100), and know the days of the week, colors, foods and parts of the body, An said.

They also learned about Japan's geography and culture, she said.

 "They were able to understand a culture from a much more personal standpoint," she said. "It gave them an opportunity to understand an entire culture better and not just learn geography from a map."

Little Tor corresponded with the Tokyo school throughout the school year by sending video messages and letters/postcards. They are hoping to have an actual live video conversation using Skype, An said.

The principal of the Japanese school even visited in January and throughout the year An and her counterpart would correspond to answer the students'  questions about the other's school.

The program culminated with a group of third-graders singing at the Clarkstown North High School World Language National Honor Society induction ceremony this spring. The elementary and high school students combined to sing "It's A Small World" in Japanese.

It was one of several assemblies the children did, spurred, in part, by the large involvement of the school's parents, An said.

"The success came from the fact that everyone bought into it," she said.

The school will discuss whether to continue the program next year, either with more Japanese classes or perhaps another language/culture, An said. She said the volunteer efforts of the high school students were crucial to the program's success and she would like that type of teamwork to continue.

"Definitely we will continue with some sort of partnership," she said.