Japanese Program Growing

Well, there have been a few exciting developments in the program, though none that affect current students immediately. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were a couple of the things I thought needed to happen with first-year Japanese for the program to really start growing... and they're both about to happen!

First, I got approval from our department chair to add a section of JPN 101 to the schedule for the winter semester next academic year. Then, if enrollments are strong, we will continue the pattern by adding a section of JPN 102 to the following fall and offer both JPN 101 and 201 in the following winter. Being able to take lower-level Japanese in either semester rather than only on a fall-winter track adds much more flexibility to the program. First, it allows better integration with study abroad programs, which generally proceed at twice the pace of our program and thus make study for a single semester difficult. Also, it allows more flexibility for students who either end up dropping the course mid-semester or who aren't quite ready to move on to the next level of language study. Retaking a semester immediately rather than waiting a full year is a much more appealing option for most of these students, and increases the likelihood that they will stick with Japanese rather than switching to one of those easy ahem... I mean European languages. Getting the third year of language was important, but this increases the chance that we can keep those third-year classes filled.

Second, we will also be offering JPN 101-102 during the spring and summer semesters next summer. This is the other half of the same equation, allowing students who don't decide to take Japanese as freshmen the chance to get in at the "ground floor" and continue as though they had done so. Now, whether these classes actually get taught next summer depends entirely on enrollment numbers, and it took German five years to build enough of a base to offer summer courses regularly. Still, I think there's enough interest to make it a possibility... and if nothing else it will give me a better sense of just how much demand there is for it at this point. Eventually I want to be able to offer 201-202 during the summer as well, making it possible to jump from first- to third-year from one year to the next, but that's a bit more difficult in terms of staffing. With only two Japanese faculty, that means both committing to spring and summer classes every year, which just isn't going to happen. Once we have three full-time faculty members, though (hopefully beginning with the 2012-13 academic year), it's a possibility. Not a huge incentive for those of you who are already studying here, but all part of building a sustainable program.

One last thing I have been working on recently is planning a faculty-led study abroad program to Japan. I've mentioned to some of you that such a program probably wouldn't be offered until the summer of 2011, and that's still the schedule we're looking at, but there have been a few developments. First, I have been doing a bit of research into our study abroad partners, and will probably be going to Japan to observe them in more detail either this December or next summer. But one thing that has become clear is that the three programs approved by the Padnos International Center do a pretty good job of fulfilling our summer language study abroad needs already. All three have summer programs in place, in which the equivalent of a year of study at Grand Valley can be completed in 8-10 weeks. Most of the forms I could imagine for leading a group of students to Japan myself to study the language would have been less efficient, less flexible, and more expensive than the existing options. But rather than discard the faculty-led program model altogether, I decided to think out of the box a bit. I still need to do a lot of the legwork, but here's what I have in mind:

I would coordinate with one of our partner institutions to use their facilities to teach a course in Japan during our spring semester. The course would be taught in English, so it would be open to all GVSU students, but it would take advantage of the setting. For example, I might teach a course in traditional Japanese theater, accompanied by trips to view live performances. Or I might do a course such as "Literature of Kyoto" or "Historical Culture of Tokyo" including trips to important sites, participation in local workshops, etc. After the course is complete, students would then have the option of either going back home or staying on at that school to study language during the summer semester. Students would get the equivalent of a full year of language and, unlike any language course I could teach myself, Japanese could be taken at any level depending on the level of individual students. As far as I know, this "hybrid" model of faculty-led study abroad has never been used in the past, but both our department chair and the director of the Padnos International Center are excited about it. We'll have to see how things go as I get deeper into the project.

So, as I said, not much of this willl impact our current students in the short term... but at least I'm excited about it.