Contest on Ideas and Examples of How to Teach Culture in Japanese-language Class

Award-winning Plans of the First Contest

      As part of our ongoing efforts to make Japanese classes effective sites of intercultural understanding, we held a contest, seeking "Ideas and Examples of How to Teach Culture in Japanese-language Class" for lesson plans that would foster intercultural understanding by incorporating cultural elements into the classroom. By “culture” we mean not the art forms of flower arrangement and tea ceremony, but rather the everyday culture of contemporary life-styles, behavior, interpersonal relationships, values, and ways of thinking.

      Here we are introducing the contest's winning lesson plans. We want to encourage Japanese-language instructors to share their ideas with other educators around the world. We are therefore also including comments from the contest judges and other Japanese-language educators, in the hope that their ideas on choosing and approaching themes will inspire new ideas on how to promote intercultural understanding in Japanese-language classes.

      You can view PDF files of the following lesson plans.

 Elementary School Level

Grand Prize:
	"Everyday Life in Japan (Mystery Box)," Cathrine McCoy (Australia)
Outstanding Lesson Plan Prizes:
	"Colors, Koi, and Culture (Kodomo no Hi)," Chieko Jones (Australia) "Tanabata," Anita Ryan (Australia) "Urashimataro (Theater)," Eiko Yonezu Larsen (Canada)

 Secondary School Level

Grand Prize:
	"The History of Japanese Rice," Sandra Lopez-Richter (U.S.A.)
Outstanding Lesson Plan Prizes:
	"Kaimono (Shopping and Personal Finance)," Sara T. Diaz (U.S.A.) "Body Language," Yoko Kano (U.S.A.) "Japanese Family Life," Leslie Mullins (Australia)
Intercultural Understanding Prizes:
	"Using Limited Space Creatively," Robert A. Hayzer (U.S.A.) "Women's Issues," Cyrus Rolbin (U.S.A.)

Comments on Introducing Culture in the Japanese-language Class

With the help of the selection committee and 14 Japanese-language educators, The Japan Forum sent comments of praise as well as suggestions for improvements to all of the teachers who participated in the contest. Presented here are a few of the comments that pertain to key aspects of introducing culture in Japanese class and to problems to potential problems aware of when doing so.

1. Select topics and activities
   
   • Elementary school children are active learners in their environment at home, at school, and in the community. Anything that captures students' attention and gets their minds engaged has the potential to produce learning; without that there will be no learning. There are three primary factors that influence what they pay attention to: something familiar, something interesting, and something that makes sense. While working with students on a play, song, or craft can provide opportunities to bring in topics such as food and family, topics that students find interesting and relevant to their own lives.
   • When it comes to learning about other cultures, teenagers are more interested in what teenagers in other parts of the world are like than in strange customs and habits.


2. Begin with everyday concern with which students can identify
   • Going step by step from things with concrete numbers to a more abstract sense of values will help students understand and imagine a society that is different from their own familiar living environment. By starting from everyday issues, students can gain a sense of familiarity with Japanese cultural issues. Students will realize that there are many different sets of values, and by understanding that these values are different from their own can broaden their perspective.
   • Meals are integral to the culture of everyday Japan. Giving students the chance to experience Japanese food is important, but it should not end merely with in just a superficial appreciation of how fun or delicious the meal was. The experience should instead provide a pathway for reflection on the students' own culture and a chance to understand Japanese culture through its eating customs.


3. Stress common aspects, not only each culture's uniqueness
   • Too many Japanese teachers are eager to represent Japan as being unique. It would be more accurate to say that Japanese culture is unique in the sense that all cultures have unique elements. It is important for students to know that Japan and Japanese culture are not isolated entities, but rather are connected to other cultures, especially other Asian cultures.
   • When people do not know much about a country's culture, the unfamiliar aspects of cultural behavior tend to stand out. If, for instance, the teacher merely tells the student Japanese people bow when they greet each other, they may simply think the Japanese are a funny people. In the interest of promoting education for intercultural understanding, the teacher would do better to lead into the subject by reminding students that people are alike in that they all have developed systems for greeting each other.


4. Show the diversity there is within a culture to avoid stereotypes
   • Traditional stories are excellent sources of cultural values as well as of information about everyday life. With a good play script, for instance, students can learn about attitudes toward nature and the levels of politeness embedded within the language structure. Generally speaking, however, introducing old tales can be misleading. Since students don't usually have enough information about the culture, when they are exposed to some information through old tales, they may think they're getting an accurate contemporary picture of the country and culture.
   • Manga (comic books) will catch the interest of high school students, and it is certainly possible to use them as teaching tools. But this too is a form of intercultural contact, and choosing which manga to use is a delicate matter. Manga that are popular in Japan but that overly exaggerate the realities of life there, should be avoided.


5. Experiment with computer technology
   • Our teenagers are living in a worldwide information age. Thanks to the Internet, information can be easily acquired throughout the world. Communication with other secondary school students inside and outside the country is not an insurmountable problem. People have different degrees of access to the Internet, but introducing its practical application to language education through various lesson plans will spur the development of new teaching methods.