Things are finally starting to happen with the new visiting Japanese teacher position for next year. It felt like we should have been moving on this a long time ago, but I've finally been allowed to post an announcement about the new position in all the relevant places. Apparently the position still hasn't been officially approved (I have no idea how these things are supposed to work) but our department chair doesn't seem to be in doubt that we'll be able to do it so I'm bowing to her experience on this one. We'll start looking at candidates right away and interview them at the Association for Asian Studies conference (the major annual Asian studies venue) at the end of March. If all goes well, I'm hoping to have someone committed to the position by the end of the semester. Officially, it's only a one-year position, but it can be renewed for up to three years and the last two people who have taken a position like this (including Emoto sensei) were in the position for the full three years.
So what does this mean? Well, basically, it means we'll have a bit more stability in the program. The visiting person will be teaching all three sections of first-year Japanese over the next few years (hopefully), which leaves me free to expand our current offerings a bit. The courses for next year are already on the books of course: I'll be teaching two sections of second-year and one of third-year (yay!) in the fall. In the winter, second-year usually drops to one section, so I'll be teaching second-year, third-year, and a Japanese culture/civ course. But if JPN 202 enrollments start getting stronger (as I'm hoping they will), there will be an impetus to expand that out to two sections in the winter semester... meaning we will need yet another teacher... meaning we may be able to add still more courses.
The game is all about proving to the college that there is a need for courses before they are allowed to be officially put on the books. Right now both sections of third-year Japanese and the culture/civ course are all listed as JPN 380, since they are all "test courses." Once we establish that such a course can draw students (that's where you all come in), then we can put them in the catalog... and then we'll NEED someone to teach them regularly. Hopefully within a couple of years we can establish not only the need to replace the visitor with a permanent position but also expand enrollments enough to warrant another visitor (or at least a one- or two-class affiliate). It's a slow process, but it seems to be heading in the right direction.
In other news, I'm thinking about changing textbooks. As you all know, I have issues with the Genki series, and a textbook I like far more just came out with a new edition that corrects many of the problems in the previous version. I think it is a better textbook and it includes access to many online resources, including audio and video files. In the meantime, I've found that the Genki series will no longer be updated... which means it will just keep getting less and less relevant to modern Japan as time goes on. There are only two things stopping me from taking the plunge: 1) the fact that several of our study abroad partners use Genki, making for easy transition from study here to study abroad; and 2) the fact that Genki is so much cheaper than the alternatives. I don't know what the bookstore charges, but you can buy the Genki textbook on Amazon for around $35 and the workbook for about $25... and that's for the whole year! Compare that to Nakama (the series I'm considering), which runs for $70 plus another $40 for the workbook... and that's just for one semester. That's actually comparable with what many language textbooks go for, but it's so much more expensive than what we're currently using that I feel the need to think it through before committing to the change. There is a substantially greater value in terms of both textbook and additional materials... but I need to decide whether it is significant enough to warrant the higher cost to the students.
If I do make a change, it will start with just JPN 101-102. JPN 201-202 next year will continue with the Genki series, then the following year we'd transition the second year students to the new series as well. That means none of you current students have a financial stake in this... so you can tell me honestly what you think. Does that textbook price seem excessive? Or worse yet, would it have made you reconsider taking Japanese altogether? As you can see above, I've got to fill these classes!
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5 comments:
Books are expensive, and while unfortunate, it is a necessary evil we are somewhat prepared for. Maybe the work book pages could be scanned so that everyone didn't have to buy it, that might make the cost less prohibitive.
However, if that textbook is what is necessary, the cost wouldn't make me stop studying.
Hm.. everything seems to be going well, awesomeness.
as for the books, I could care less about the price but rather the material. Do what you feel best, if a student is committed to learn the language then that shouldnt matter.
I thank you for being concerned about the cost of the books. This is something that I have noticed that at GVSU (or atleast in the classes for my major) the teachers do not have any idea of how much the books cost and tend to make statements depicting their lack of knowledge.
I'm not someone who is anywhere close to rich. Infact, I put myself through school and work to pay my bills/loans, food, housing etc. Despite this, I would say that if the quality of the book is that much better (and the content is more relevant with modern times) then it is well worth it to learn from that textbook. It is better to spend so much money on a book that one will use everyday, than, in the case of a few classes I have had, spend the same amount of money for a book that is "required" but never used.
If the textbook works better, then students should suck it up. They're already paying nearly $4000 for their tuition, so what's an extra $30 to replace the current textbook with something more effective and efficient? It seems to me that in the long run, a couple extra dollars won't really make much of a difference.
As for other courses... Emoto sensei taught a film course under JPN 380 last fall, and, being a freshman, I was unable to take it. I'd love to see that happen again. Also, it's tough when you haven't really mastered the language, but I think a linguistics course would be really beneficial in learning the language, especially to students who are serious about learning Japanese. Even if it's the basics--phonology, morphology, etc.--linguistics is an interesting topic. I don't know about Japanese linguistics, but in my ENG 261 and 363 classes, it's put a whole new perspective on my learning language. Plus, if we ever get a Japanese major, it is suggested to most foreign language majors to take ENG 261.
テイラー・パット
My first year, we used Nakama under Professor Kaori Shau. However, that was her last year as a visiting professor and we were then changed to Genki with the arrival of Emoto. The transition was very, very rough to be honest. The differences between Nakama 1 and Genki 2 left huge discrepancies in our knowledge with kanji, vocabulary, and some grammar.
Now that I am at ICU, we are using their proprietary textbook, and I find myself wishing for Genki a lot. Even my tutor, a student of ICU's JLP program, says that Genki is the better book, and I cannot be more inclined to agree.
Genki is an affordable book, but I feel its method is more conducive to language learning. That's just me though. I've gone through three (soon to be four) different texts, and keeping to one solid text I think would have helped immensely.
エリカ・ファセット
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