Hey everyone
DISCLAIMER: People have been asking me this question**: No, I don’t have JLPT N1, but I understood and was able to engage decently with a lot of the topics and speak Japanese.**
My name is Squigly, a current college student and someone who wants to be a Japanese teacher in the future, and is now a college student.
These days i have been starting to research, network and even attend actual workshops and classes in Japanese.
I actually registered and attended 3 seminars in Japanese for native Japanese speakers and teachers. And in one of them I actually presented as the very final presenter.
So Here i’ll share my experience down below. When I was attending the workshops I started to realize there were some truths, and significant misunderstandings.
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Workshop 1:
-There was around 70-80 people.
-The main topic of the presentation was talking about your teaching Identity then there was a spotlight presentation as the 2nd part
- I presented as the 11th and final presentor. My topic was about disabilities and pedagogy. In Japanese.
We were all in breakout rooms, each group had 3 people. In my group, there was a teacher from brown univ and one teacher from a high school. My group was so polite, we all talked in Japanese and have fun. We were all so respectful and they liked hearing from me.
We were talking about our “ideal japanese class” and “the realities”. Then we were introduced some methods such as a teaching portfolio chart.
Workshop 2:
-There was around 90 people
-The main topic of the presentation was about AI and Japanese education.
**-**The presentation lasted a long time but I learned a lot of new stuff,
-There were 2 parts, one of them was listening to the coach for 1.5 hrs, and the other was going into breakoutrooms and talking on how to adapt to the use of AI. We were using padlet and zoom stickynote to write our ideas.
The coach introduced some methods, like allowing students to experiment with AI, or use it as a tool properly.
Workshop 3
-Around 60 people
-The main topic was about how to make a good essay or proposal
-More to come here
Now, some LONG text here. But after attending these workshops, I think there is a layer us learners cannot see or understand.
---------- Misunderstandings and truth to the Japanese langauge learning community--------
Misunderstanding 1 and 2: Japanese people struggle with ENGLISH just how YOU struggle with Japanese.
Meaning: They appreciate it if you speak Japanese and be understood, NOT perfect.
The 2 teachers in the group were telling me about how hard English was for them. It is still difficult for them too. When they were learning English they realized how hard it was to learn English and they started to be more open towards students.
To teach Japanese in the US, a lot of Japanese teachers I know have to be billingual, so of course they are doing work billingually. And they do these cultural exchanges because they believe there is either a cultural misunderstanding or a way to connect. It is so we can unite.
Consider the Japan foundation, AATJ, Kakekashi Project, Laurasian Institution, IACE, etc, those programs have centerline goals like this because they think it is necessary.
I feel like Japanese people want to practice their english, so whenever there is a foreigner in a company, they want to speak to you at times in English. Because to them its a rare experience.
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Cold Truth 1: Instead of ignoring or banning AI, a lot of teachers I know are learning to adapt to it and use it to their advantage.
A lot of teachers in the spotlight shared how they used AI to make their lesson plannings easier.
One guy actually used SUNO AI to make learner songs and lyrics. They organize and make the songs with the taught words kanji and grammer. And increase student engagement by making songs based on their interest.
And keep in mind many of these teachers are aware of AI’s limitation or mistakes. One person I talked to verified she always checks AI’s work before even executing the plan. Many of these people balance the use of AI and non AI work and they were clear about it.
In summary: While us learners complain about AI, Japanese language pedagogists, and teachers are looking in ways on how to adapt with AI (without abuse or overuse). We cannot accept change.
We must use it in a responsible manner.
Cold Truth 2: Why are many of these Japanese language classes so easy? So hard? Or not fair
In reality, many teachers are trying to make a plan that fits everyone, BUT it is not like that. Since we come from different backrounds and ethnicities and skillsets, it is very hard for a teacher to predict or make something that makes everyone happy.
Some of us are better visual learners, auditory learners hands on etc. A teacher usually has so many people of these different skillsets in the room. What they often think is good, may not end up being good for a lot of people (students)
So they often usually make their class easy, they curve the grades, or make grading or content accessible for everyone because they realized not everyone can listen or study as well.
Plus, Some Japanese classes have half Japanese or kids who know a lot of Japanese already, and theres also a lot of people who know none of it at all. So the teacher has to figure out a way to accomidate the higher pack and the lower pack. But unfortunately sometimes when you do something the other party gets bored really easily.
In summary, your teachers “boring” classes were not made with the intention that you thought it was. In reality its frustration and trial and error on the teachers side.
Cold Truth 3: Wanikani is fine, but learnjapanese and other Japanese communities are out of touch with reality.
I think learnjapanese especially is very out of touch with reality. And if you hop into the discords, the vibe in Japanese chat is a lot more different.
I was presenting to 70+ Native Japanese educators about a topic (in a 5 minute spotlight), I was sharing my excitement for that and the people were telling me “good luck being shamed” or “good luck making a lot of mistakes” or “dont even bother”.
But in reality all I got in the call was cheers, claps and very nice comments from the japanese teachers. No criticism. These teachers had lots of experience and etc. But they were so happy for me. And I gained a lot of respect from teachers that day.
Learnjapanese and etc makes output, mistakes and speaking Japanese worse than it needs to be. Over a lot of other communities, a lot of people discourage output a lot more in there. People are a lot more worried too of making mistakes and they are worried Japanese people will shame you.
They will assume they are strict or will point out your pesky Japanese. In reality it’s not like that. Instead a lot of Japanese people will say you’re 上手 because they are happy you are speaking their language and speaking in a way thats understandable.
But on reddit and foreigner communities, there has been so much debate about it… I don’t get it. People like to down this comment a lot.
In summary, The fact that we CANNOT accept any praise, acceptance and kindness, and claps one bit shows how TIGHT we are. That isn’t always a good thing.
Instead we need to loosen up and enjoy the process and have fun.
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Closing and experience:
I had a lot of fun. Despite being a college student, this was a very valuable chance for me not only to improve my Japanese, BUT to talk and meet actual Japanese educators face to face and to network, And see their unfiltered words. It is a rare experience and I am super glad I was able to experience that.