Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Advanced Japanese teacher doesn't speak Japanese (watch movies)
Sacramento Bee ^ | Melody Gutierrez

Posted on 02/22/2011 3:14:08 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

Kayla Chung sits in her advanced Japanese language class at Rosemont High School but learns nothing about how to read or write the language.

That's because Chung's teacher – a long-term substitute – does not know Japanese.

"All we do is sit in class, watch movies on Japan and take notes," said Chung, 16, who is in Japanese III. "I'm pretty sure that's not how Japanese is supposed to be taught."

The situation at Rosemont highlights the difficulties schools face when offering specialized programs that have relatively few qualified teachers.

Rosemont's popular Japanese language classes were previously taught by a woman who went on maternity leave in August. The substitute the school hired to fill in for her quit in November.

.... An art teacher with a background in Asian studies was brought on in December and will remain until April when the regular teacher returns from maternity leave.

The substitute, who is also teaching Japanese I, II and IV, does not know the language and instead focuses on the culture and history of the country.

.....Chung, the Rosemont student, said she will sit out Japanese III for the rest of the year knowing she won't be able to talk with the school's Japanese exchange student any time soon.

"I feel like we are just getting BS work so we can get class credits," Chung said. "To me, these credits don't mean anything because I'm not learning what I should."

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: education; homeschoolingisgood; teachers; unions
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 next last
To: DH

Nah, his name was Gota Gonow


61 posted on 02/22/2011 5:30:16 AM PST by Cronos ("They object to tradition saying that they themselves are wiser than the apostles" - Ire.III.2.2)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Did you say that you have an opening for a long term substitute foreign language teacher?


62 posted on 02/22/2011 5:31:08 AM PST by Pilsner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah
The Chinese languages constitute an immense “family’ of languages ~ whatever the “official” language is in Big China is irrelevant

I was pointing out that when you are discussing tones, you can't refer to the "Chinese" language. You have to refer to the specific dialect. Since Mandarin is the official language in China ( whether you like it or not ) - as well as Taiwan - when most people refer to Chinese, they are really talking about Mandarin.

63 posted on 02/22/2011 5:33:25 AM PST by TheCipher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck

good point!


64 posted on 02/22/2011 5:34:27 AM PST by Cronos ("They object to tradition saying that they themselves are wiser than the apostles" - Ire.III.2.2)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Pilsner

Si.


65 posted on 02/22/2011 5:40:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
I spoke with a Latin teacher once. Since I had six years of Latin, including Caesar (2d year), Cicero (3d year), Virgil (4th year), Livy and Ovid (5th and 6th years), all the while having the classes conducted in Latin from 3d year on, I wanted to visit one of her classes to observe and see just how much I remembered.

She told me that her students didn't actually speak, read or write the Latin language, rather they spent the class time absorbing Roman culture through movies and pictures.

I wonder what an "A" in that class really meant.

66 posted on 02/22/2011 5:57:01 AM PST by HIDEK6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

Just damn.....


67 posted on 02/22/2011 6:05:27 AM PST by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheCipher

Mandarin works fine in Big China. You get out into the overseas Chinese community and you’ve gotta’ have facility in Hokien, Cantonese, Shanhainaise, and so on.


68 posted on 02/22/2011 6:08:54 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

Rabbits gotta’ eat so I suppose there’s something to eat there but for the Sakha the purpose of a rabbit is to get shot and yield up his fur. They have some of the larger rabbits on Earth around there. Check this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP_2tmRO31U Yakuts at work!


69 posted on 02/22/2011 6:16:22 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

Godzilla likes being referenced!


70 posted on 02/22/2011 6:18:43 AM PST by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah
Mandarin works fine in Big China. You get out into the overseas Chinese community and you’ve gotta’ have facility in Hokien, Cantonese, Shanhainaise, and so on.

I know that. It is the same here in Taiwan. Around Taipei, most people speak Mandarin.But you go to some of the southern parts and ( mostly with the older folks- my inlaws and such ) they speak mostly Taiwanese, even though Mandarin is the "official" language. You even have Hakka spoken in some parts.

71 posted on 02/22/2011 6:18:58 AM PST by TheCipher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: HIDEK6

Like so many of us, who attended public schools up until around 1965, it came as quite a shock to learn that they didn’t teach like they used to and that you shouldn’t judge course content but the name of the subject.

Such a terrible waste; a flippant disregard for achievement and the criminal destruction of human potential.

A lot of GOOD teachers left the profession once it began to fill with graduates from schools of education run by Sixties radicals — when everything went to hell in a hand basket.


72 posted on 02/22/2011 6:28:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: TheCipher

Of course Hakka is spoken in some parts ~ it’s the only way you can communicate with the coastal Chinese communities throughout the disaspora into the Indonesian archipelago and other Southeast Asian places for one thing. Plus, their food is better.


73 posted on 02/22/2011 6:48:14 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: ican'tbelieveit

That’s a good point. Those kids should have been placed in some college’s distance learning program instead of watching Anpan Man cartoons.


74 posted on 02/22/2011 6:50:49 AM PST by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: gogogodzilla; Godzilla

But which gojira?? ;-P


75 posted on 02/22/2011 7:09:57 AM PST by Cronos ("They object to tradition saying that they themselves are wiser than the apostles" - Ire.III.2.2)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: struggle
Oooooi. Ano kurasu oshieru yo!

Kichi wa subete wareware no monoda.

76 posted on 02/22/2011 7:49:19 AM PST by bIlluminati (Don't just hope for change, work for change in 2011-2012.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco
If she cant converse with the exchange student, then what did she learn in Japanese I and II?????

She probably learned to say things like "my pencil is yellow" and how to order sushi. Once she has gotten past these, (and found out where the bathroom is), real conversation might be difficult.

77 posted on 02/22/2011 1:34:40 PM PST by murdoog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: gogogodzilla; Cronos
Godzilla likes being referenced!

Of course!


78 posted on 02/22/2011 4:40:42 PM PST by Godzilla (3-7-77)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: bert

Ok bert, why would your kids need to learn japanese?
Sure sounds like it would be as easy at home as with the publx skols, only watching tv. Ever hear of Rosetta Stone?

One of the very best reasons for home school is so the kids don’t have to suffer thtough any class within which to “privleged minority” continually disrupt with shouting MoFo at teacher and students.


79 posted on 02/23/2011 5:13:20 AM PST by dusttoyou ("Progressives" are wee-weeing all over themselves, Foc nobama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: dusttoyou

Apparently you live in a bad place. Perhaps you should move


80 posted on 02/23/2011 5:17:08 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson