March, 2014: Breeze Issue #77

A Free Monthly E-Newsletter for Friends of Japan & Teachers of Japanese

Japanese Language Education Update #3: Advocacy - Call for Ideas and Examples

by Amanda Rollins, Japanese Language Program Coordinator

Let's strengthen the Japanese program at your school!

Advocacy leads to student recruitment, administration pride, and parent interest. The more people know how fun Japanese is, the more they'll want to learn it, and the more students you'll have!

These are big goals, so it's best to break them down into simple, clear activity plans. That's where JFLA's upcoming Advocacy Activities page comes in. We are compiling a list of things teachers can do to spread the word about the Japanese language.

Here's an example of excellent, local advocacy: Kazue Masuyama-sensei from California State University, Sacramento maintains a simple informational website for teachers, students, and parents in her community. It features a map of schools which teach Japanese in her area, information about the language, and useful links. This is helpful for the community and helps build ties.

Yukiyo Moorman-sensei from Whitman High School (CA) submitted her students' persuasive speech read during an open house about the advantages of learning Japanese.

If you have advocacy ideas:

• Activities you have tried
• Activities you have heard about
• Links to other similar lists
• Easy or complicated activities
• Free or funded activities
• We especially want activities which suit the Japanese language particularly well!

Please contact Amanda Rollins at jflaeducation@jflalc.org. Soon enough, more teachers will be doing them!