This course gives students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture from the perspective of social justice and responsibility through their community service. Students develop advanced level communication skills through discussions, reflection essays, and presentations. Taught in Japanese. (Prereq: (JAPN 300 or equivalent)
Course Reflection
I took the advanced Japanese service learning course the semester that I had returned from my study abroad in Japan. During this class we learned about many issues that related to our multicultural and multilingual community that we live in. I was able to further understand these issues by our assigned readings, class discussions, and our hands on service learning. For my service learning project I was a part of a group of three people, two others and myself, where we volunteered 3 hours weekly for 10 weeks at an after school program at Walter Colton Middle school. During our ten weeks my group and I created lesson plans about Japanese language and culture for a group of about 20 seventh grade students. Some of the the lessons plans that I had created came from my past experience I had from teaching dharma school at the buddhist temple, and a Japanese language and culture summer program. However, unlike my previous teaching, I was able to learn about multiculturalism and multilingualism because the students that I worked with for my service learning were from various ethnic backgrounds, however, there was a majority of students who were of Mexican heritage. For example, in the beginning classes, when we taught Japanese words to the students, they often would tell us how to say the words in their native languages. We noticed that by asking the students how they would say the word we were teaching them in their native language they often remained engaged longer and better remembered what we taught them. Furthermore, we were able to practice our Japanese language skills throughout the semester with presentations about our service learning in Japanese. For sample works click here.