{"id":1898,"date":"2008-09-08T19:52:45","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T10:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2008-09-08T19:53:32","modified_gmt":"2008-09-08T10:53:32","slug":"having-a-phenomenal-experience-at-nagoya-university-with-multiculturalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1898","title":{"rendered":"Having a phenomenal experience at Nagoya University with multiculturalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0Just a quick word tonight, since I have to prepare for tomorrow’s classes.<\/p>\n

I just wanted to write that I’m having a phenomenal experience at Nagoya University at the moment teaching an intensive course on media professionality and responsibility. \u00a0(This is the first time I’m teaching this course, from scratch, with lots of powerpoint slides.)<\/p>\n

I have two Japanese, two Chinese, and a Mongolian student attending. \u00a0All of them are sharp, interested, engaging, and so lively in discussion that I have trouble sometimes getting a word in to steer the lesson back to the current point! \u00a0(That alone is phenomenal, given my two decades of teaching quiet classes.) \u00a0Six hours flew by without pause to look at our watches.<\/p>\n

But even more breathtaking is that two-thirds of the class, myself included, are not native speakers. \u00a0And of course, we’re doing everything in Japanese, from newspaper articles to reading sections of UN treaties and government statements out loud. \u00a0We’re communicating at an extremely high level in a second language that many of us (well, me, actually, back in the haughty Bubble years when I first arrived here) were once told that foreigners could never learn to speak, read, or write in any useful facility. \u00a0Boy, were the naysayers wrong. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, having the perspectives of other Asians in the classroom is marvelous given the collective experiences we all bring of overseas media perspectives and attitudes. \u00a0Creates a dynamic that is collegiate and international in the best sense. \u00a0I think it’s one of the best classes I’ve ever taught, and it’s only been the first day.<\/p>\n

Makes me hopeful for Japan’s future as a multicultural, multiethnic, quite possibly even multilingual society. \u00a0It’s gonna happen. \u00a0I feel as though I’ve got a front-row seat watching it emerge.<\/p>\n

Arudou Debito in Nagoya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m having a remarkable experience teaching a class on media professionality and responsibility, in a class where two-thirds of the students are not native speakers. And of course, we’re doing everything in Japanese, from newspaper articles to reading sections of UN treaties and government statements out loud. We’re communicating at an extremely high level in a second language that many of us (well, me, actually, back in the haughty Bubble years when I first arrived here) were once told that foreigners could never learn to speak, read, or write in any useful facility. Boy, were the naysayers wrong. Makes me hopeful for Japan’s future as a multicultural, multiethnic, quite possibly even multilingual society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,35,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-good-news","category-immigration-assimilation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}