We were so happy to re-establish our afterschool Japanese Plus program in fall 2022, on hiatus since March 2020 due to the pandemic. We had a great school year with a great group of students!
Funding: Our major funder for the year was the United States-Japan Foundation. We are so grateful for their support and belief in the importance of the work we are doing to expand access to Japanese studies for underserved urban high school students. We also depended on additional contributions from generous individuals and corporations from our local community and beyond.
Staffing: Our founding Japanese teacher, Yoko Eshita, relocated to Richmond during the pandemic, so she needed to be replaced. We were thrilled that two highly regarded George Washington University professors from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Professors Takae Tsujioka and Shoko Hamano, stepped forward to team teach Japanese Plus for the year. We also recruited two volunteer language assistants – a Japanese native, Satsuki Koike, and one of our advanced Japanese Plus students, Aitana Camponovo – for classroom and out-of-class support. Adding language assistants to the team helped the teachers implement small group work and significantly benefited those students who needed extra support.
Program Format: Japanese Plus meets twice a week for a minimum of five hours per week outside of regular school time. In SY2022-23 we adopted a hybrid format, with Wednesday meetings (4:30-6:30 pm) taught by Hamano-sensei online, and Saturday meetings (10 am-1 pm) taught by Tsujioka-sensei in person. We thought this strategy might make the program more accessible to students from schools geographically distant from our meeting site. Ultimately, we feel the challenges of online learning outweigh the benefits, so we will be returning to all in-person meetings in year 2.
Meeting Site: Through an agreement with Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (DC’s central public library), we were able to secure free classroom space for our weekly Saturday meetings.
Students: Japanese Plus is open to interested students from any DC public high school (DCPS or charter). For the first time, we required students to make a two-year commitment to the program; we accepted only students in 9th-11th grades (no seniors). The intent was to reduce the attrition between year one and year two that we experienced in prior years. This proved to be a very successful innovation. Twenty (20) students were selected in September 2022, representing nine different schools; 17 students completed the first year program and declared their intent to continue with us in year 2.
Language Instruction: As in earlier years, Japanese Plus relies on the Marugoto series for our textbooks. We continued the practice of scheduling extra “boot camps” for students, where language assistants and advanced students coached those students who needed extra help.
Cultural and College/Career Exposure and Student Blog: Despite only one in-person meeting a week, we were able to provide great opportunities through in-class speakers, field trips, cultural experiences, student exchanges, and career and college exposure. Students documented these experiences, along with their reflections on Japanese language learning, in our Student Blog throughout the school year. We highly recommend reading their reflections at www.japaneseplus.org/blog.
Here are some of the year’s highlights:
Oct 2022:
Classroom recruiting visit from High School Diplomats, a summer cultural exchange program for US and Japanese high school students.
Classroom recruiting visit from Temple University-Japan.
Classroom speaker, DCPS teacher Simon Conway, about his experience living and teaching in Japan.
Nov 2022:
“Onigiri Action” workshop, presented by Table for Two, at Latin American Youth Center.
Visit to Hana Market to buy Japanese goodies. A first time experience for most!
Dec 2022:
A two-day educational experience organized for us by Jennifer Reifsteck at the National Museum of Asian Art. Included an exploration of the museum’s website feature on “Investigating Japan’s Edo Avant Garde,” followed by a tour of the Freer’s “Feathered Ink” exhibit.
Jan 2023:
Participated with the Embassy of Japan’s Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) in their spring exhibit, “Blossoming Flowers in Japanese Art.” In January, JICC staff members Aki Regan and Atsushi Iwai visited our classroom to lead a haiku workshop, which encouraged students to compose haiku connected to flowers meaningful in Japanese culture. Students were excited to see their haikus included as part of the exhibit at the JICC in the spring.
Attended the Japan Commerce Association of Washington, DC (JCAW) annual New Year’s Celebration at the Metro Center Marriott Hotel where they had the opportunity to experience a variety of cultural activities and to interact with many Japanese area residents.
Feb 2023:
Hosted a KAKEHASHI exchange experience with high school students from Hiroshima, Japan at All Souls Unitarian Church on 16th Street, NW in Adams Morgan. The visit included a visit to the church’s exhibit of Hiroshima Children’s Art, a small group language/culture exchange, and lunch at Z-Burger.
A visit to the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum.
March 2023
Hosted two different delegations of KAKEHASHI visitors from Okinawa through the TOFU (Think of Okinawa’s Future in the US) Program at Columbia Heights Education Campus (CHEC), along with students from that school’s Japanese language program. These two visits included presentations from our Japanese visitors, language exchange, and lessons in the Cha Cha Slide.
Apr 2023:
Sponsored a booth for two days at the Sakura Matsuri, sponsored by the Japan America Society of Washington DC. Part of DC’s National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Japanese Plus students demonstrated Rajio Taiso at the opening of the new “Jazz and Blossoms” festival at Franklin Park. Arranged through Words Beats & Life and the Downtown DC BID.
Jun 2023
Eight Japanese Plus students spent a full day at the NAFSA Annual Conference and Expo, along with students from Whitman HS in Maryland and South County HS in Virginia, at the invitation of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ). Students had the opportunity to hear from embassy and Japanese university representatives regarding opportunities to study abroad in Japan.
Student post-secondary accomplishments:
- In 2022, three Japanese Plus alumni started their first year at Japanese universities – Asa Marshall and Katie Nguyen at Temple University-Japan and Aeris Golden-Thompson at International Christian University. Aeris was also the recipient of a Toshizo Watanabe Scholarship from US Japan Council.
- Another student, Bryson Torgovitsky, from both our TOMODACHI US-Japan Youth Exchange Program and our first Japanese Plus cohort, started a PhD program in Marine Science at Tohoku University.
- And we are very proud that we now have a program alumna from our TOMODACHI US-Japan Youth Exchange Program, Jarid Shields, as a JET Program participant.
Revised DC Social Studies Standards:
During the pandemic, with the rise of anti-Asian hate, students in our online Japanese Tamago program decided to create a project to take action – the #Stop Asian Hate Project. They determined that the best focus for their attention would be on K-12 education in DC to reduce ignorance that contributes to stereotyping, scapegoating, and acts of hate and violence. By coincidence DC had just begun the process of revising its K-12 social studies standards, which determine what will be taught in all DC public schools. In 2022-23, two of our students – Chamiya Carnathan and Penelope Morris – took a leadership role in advocating for increased content on Asia and Asian Americans in the standards – through written and oral testimony. The advocacy made a huge difference – the resulting standards are demonstrably better in their treatment of Japan, Japanese Americans, and Asia related content.
Reference: https://www.globalizedc.org/dc-social-studies-standards-revision/
And our student voices: https://japaneseplus.org/2023/04/11/an-important-fight-for-the-inclusion-of-asia-asian-and-aapi-content/
In addition to testifying multiple times before the DC State Board of Education, our students attended a meet and greet with with a DC Council candidate. They also attended a March screening of “No No Girl” at the E Street Cinema, sponsored by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
Refer to our Student Blog for more detailed information and student reactions to these experiences.
GLOBALIZE DC: JAPAN 