Asian Language Instruction

[clay dube]

The Japan Foundation is making a new video resource available for teachers of Japanese. In 2002 the Foundation released a popular collection of TV commercials to support language instruction. The new collection includes 51 commercials, each 15-180 seconds in length. Supporting materials include explanations of each commercial's content, vocabulary lists, and more. These commercials were among the winners of a 2002 advertising competition.

To rent a copy of the video and get the materials, contact either the nearest Japan Foundation office or the nearest Japanese consulate or embassy. For teachers in Southern California:

Japan Foundation Los Angeles Office and Language Center
http://www.jflalc.org/

Japanese Consulate
http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/e_web2003/e_home.htm

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in learning more about Korean culture and learn Korean, there is a small museum, library, exhibits and resource center right down the street from our class on Wilshire Boulevard.

Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles

The Korean Language Classes cost $30 which has been heavily subsidized by the Korean Government.
It is a ten week course with 6 levels to choose from.
It meets one night a week.
Also, if you visit during regular hours and tell them your teacher, they will hook you up materials and usually it is free, so check it.

lc

[clay dube]

Palos Verdes Penninsula USD has developed a relatively low cost means to bring Chinese language instruction to students in K-3 grades at Lunada Bay Elementary. Funded in part by a federal Foreign Language Assistance Program grant (for more info go to:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/flap/index.html)

The program uses "Total Physical Response" principles in using Chinese in physical education instruction. A single pe teacher (in this case a credentialed bilingual teacher working on a part time hourly basis) is delivering the instruction. Students are really excited about the program and push their regular teachers to let them practice the Chinese vocabulary they are acquiring.

I was much impressed. PVPUSD is receiving assistance from CSULB professor Peng Liu in designing the curriculum and from UCLA's Asia Institute and Language Resource Center in expanding the program and evaluating it. The district plans to begin offering Chinese language instruction at Palos Verdes High in the fall. At present, the district's Penninsula High offers Japanese language instruction.

I've attached a photograph of the program in action. [Edit by="Clay Dube on Mar 20, 8:02:07 AM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

Here's a second photo of kids learning a Chinese song that involves a running tiger.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all of the information about language studies. This will help considerably. I have contacted them about getting beginning phrases and words to teach to all of my humanities and, possibly, dance students. There are a number of Korean students have speak very little English at our school. This could be fun for all of them and the other students.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any suggestions of institutions where Japanese is taught? I would consider affordability and convenient access as two factors. Any ideas?

[clay dube]

Torrance, CA teacher Michael Alvarez saw this article in the NY Times on Oct. 14, 2005 and shared it in the Torrance forum. Because it is of wider interest I thought we should provide a link to it here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/15/national/15chinese.html

Free registration is required to access the NYT website and free access to articles is limited to a week or so. Here are some highlights:

1. big federal investment in promoting Chinese language instruction ($700k grant to Portland schools, $1.3 b bill introduced by Senators Lieberman and Alexander)

2. AP Chinese starts in fall 2006 (in part with money provided by the Chinese government)

3. an estimated 50,000 children in US schools are studying Chinese

4. Mayor Richard Daley: "I think there will be two languages in this world." "There will be Chinese and English."

5. 3,000 students, of all ethnicities, are studying Chinese

[Anonymous]

I recently read that Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. As our world is getting smaller it seems that language is one of the most important things that we can learn. It also seems that in every metropolitan area there are at least two languages that you need to learn in order to be successful. It is good to know that these skills are being taught to young children.
dsenteno

[Anonymous]

It's too bad that LAUSD doesn't have Japanese or Chinese classes for teachers to take. There are classes where we can learn Spanish, but to have the opportunity to learn other languages would be wonderful. Then who knows...maybe have clubs where kids can learn a different language w/out the pressures of grades, standards, and other pressures that traditional classes have.

[clay dube]

First, some numbers:
Here are California enrollments (note that this does not include elementary school instruction):

CA Students Enrolled in Japanese
1982 566
1995 6,451
2004 13,327 (LA County 3,695)

CA/LA Students Enrolled in Chinese
1982 1,085
1995 3,859
2004 7,827 (plus 365 taking Chinese for native speakers) (LA County
2,652, plus 295 taking the course for native speakers)

CA/LA Students Enrolled in Korean
1982 245
1995 874
2004 1,962 (plus 136 taking Korean for native speakers) (LA County
1,551 plus 136 taking Korean for native speakers)

CA Students Enrolled in Vietnamese
2004 1,230

Do you know what the numbers are for your district? Which schools, if any, in your district offer these or other Asian languages? Anyone know what the numbers are for the nation? Hint: I got the most recent California and Los Angeles data from the web.[Edit by="Clay Dube on Oct 27, 9:13:08 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

In an article published today at the Inside Higher Education website, Scott Jashick reports that interest in studying Chinese has never been greater. He notes a rapid rise in enrollments at schools across the nation, noting that 369 students are enrolled in first year Chinese at UCLA. (He could have also noted that total enrollment in Chinese language courses is 572, the highest in the nation.)

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/28/chinese

From the article:

"As dramatic as some of the enrollment increases colleges are already seeing are, they may be a fraction of what is to come. Next year, the College Board will offer an Advanced Placement test in Chinese for the first time, as part of an expansion that is also introducing AP tests in Italian, Japanese and Russian. As with all AP language courses, several years of language study would be required before the test. Earlier this year, the College Board surveyed high schools, asking if they planned to offer the new AP language courses. Board officials expected a few hundred would indicate interest in each of the new language programs. That was true for all except Chinese, for which 2,400 high schools indicated that they planned to build their Chinese programs to levels where students could take the AP exam."
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Oct 29, 2:24:45 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Hey Arthur here are some quick references:
You can even learn online, how about that?

Japan Foundation Los Angeles Office and Language Center
http://www.jflalc.org/

Japanese Consulate
http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/e_web2003/e_home.htmJapanese-Online.com ::: Online Japanese Language & Culture ...
Free Japanese Language Lessons and Translated Math Story Problems from Japan's Jr. High Math Placement Tests.
http://www.japanese-online.com/ - 1k - Cached - Similar pages

LEARN JAPANESE.
This page is showing sentences: greeting,Introducing,asking,etc...Also please check the Learn Basic Japanese and Learn Basic Kanji page to compare. ...
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ft5k-ymd/learn.html - 2k - Cached - Similar pages

Learn Japanese - Free!
The URL for this website has changed. You will be automatically redirected in 10 seconds. Please update your bookmarks after being redirected. Thank you. ...
http://www.thehaucks.com/learn.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages

Learn How to Wow in Japanese!
Learn interesting Japanese while having fun. Grammar, kanji, culture and a little bit of everything Japanese for free.
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

Japanese language learning tools on Web
Kenkyuukai.com - Learn Japanese with students at your level! JAPSTER 2000 ... Japanese: Learn Japanese language, grammar, kanji, culture and more for FREE! ...
http://www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/language.html - 66k - Oct 28, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Nihongo o Narau - Learn Japanese
A free, easy way to learn Japanese online. Covers sentence structure and has lots of vocabulary.
http://www.learn-japanese.info/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Learn Japanese - Japanese Language
Exercises, tips and lessons to help you learn to speak and write Japanese. Practice phonetics, calligraphy and grammar, and download dictionaries.
japanese.about.com/ - 24k - Oct 28, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Learn Japanese On the Web, CosCom
Practical Japanese, conversation, expressions, and Kanji with audio. Textbooks and CD-ROMs also for sale.
http://www.coscom.co.jp/ - 14k - Oct 28, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Introduction to Japanese Language for Nihongo Learning with Speech
The contents are Japanese Letters, grammar and stories with speech for busy people.
sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/sp/lesson/j/doc/japanese.html - 15k - Oct 28, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Learn Japanese Online - What is Included
Learn to Speak, Read and Write Japanese on the Internet. (Fee-based)
http://www.yesjapan.com/ - 29k - Oct 28, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

[Anonymous]

I know Torrance Parks/Rec offer a night class for adults and I believe Southbay adult school does as well. These classes are really reasonable for someone who wants to get their feet wet at a new language.

[Anonymous]

I think having clubs where students can learn and practice language sounds like a fabulous idea. They probably would get further if they also had a class to help pull everything together. One of the best experiences I had learning Spanish was in a conversation class. I highly recommend this particular set up for anyone thinking about teaching any language in a relax conversation style. Half of the converstaional Spanish class students were already fluent. The rest of us were given some vocabulary to learn and then we were to discuss with our partners. We changed partners frequently and were not allowed to utter one single word in English during the conversation times. Because we were all paired with students who were already fluent, they were able to guess our meanings better and guide us to the proper verbal expression of that idea. I learned more in that class than in any other that I have ever experienced. But I needed to have had a couple of semesters of basic Spanish first.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information and photos. My daughterr teaches at Brockton Avenue Elementary near Uni and they are looking for way to establish unique learning environments for their primary grades. This sound like a well thought out program that can be replicated wherever instructors are available. I will pass this on. The same concept could be empolyed in a variety of curricular "specialty" areas: Music, Dance, Theater, Art.
It seems like one of the key strategies the Palos Verdes people are using is creating a "need" in the elementary years so that when students reach high school there will be a population of Chinese language learners demanding classes.

Is there anthing similar to this at UCLA which is near both Uni and Brockton? There could also be a link with Emerson Middle School near UCLA.

[Author]

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