JAPN 320S: Upper Division Service Learning
Course Description:
This course gives students opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture through their community service and to develop communication skills through discussions, reflection essays and presentations. Taught in Japanese.
This course gives students opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japanese language and culture through their community service and to develop communication skills through discussions, reflection essays and presentations. Taught in Japanese.
Course Reflective Narrative:
There was no other course as gratifying as my Service Learning course. I must confess I was a bit worried about taking this class when I was returning from Japan. The reason being that I thought my commute was going to take a toll on me and my performance in my other classes. I live 2.5 hours away from CSUMB and five hours on the road are too much when you are trying to deal with five classes at the same time, especially if one of them is Service Learning where you have to prepare for each lesson so you can offer the kids some quality materials and lectures.
The site where I did my SL was J.C. Crumpton in Marina, CA. The kids were wonderful and they participated in each lesson enthusiastically. We always tried to plan our lessons ahead of time so what we presented was always related to something they know in their own culture. We learned several important concepts and ideas in class; they all turned out to be very useful not only when applied in our respective sites but also when applied in our daily lives.
This course reinforced some ideas that I already held, however when we were given the opportunity to implement them in the communities they made a great difference. Ideas and ideals such as those against racism and pro equality were upheld in each classroom. We supported and encouraged an understanding of what diversity means; the students at Crumpton did a great job at implementing those ideas and values.
Teaching those kids and attending class and participating in discussions based on our readings made me realize how important it is to appreciate our own cultures, as well as those of others. We learned the difference between fixing, helping and serving; which I had never seen from the angle offered by the authors of the articles read in class. We wrote weekly reflections from each of our sites to analyze and consider things that we had learn and whether there was room for improvement or not. We practice in English and Japanese which was always helpful so we become a bit more confident as the semester elapsed.
We created a couple presentations in which we put a lot of thought into the things we could contribute to the community and the students in general, as well as what we were getting out of it. The final presentation was intended to offer that deeper analysis on these aspects and our final reflection on everything we learned during those months.
There was no other course as gratifying as my Service Learning course. I must confess I was a bit worried about taking this class when I was returning from Japan. The reason being that I thought my commute was going to take a toll on me and my performance in my other classes. I live 2.5 hours away from CSUMB and five hours on the road are too much when you are trying to deal with five classes at the same time, especially if one of them is Service Learning where you have to prepare for each lesson so you can offer the kids some quality materials and lectures.
The site where I did my SL was J.C. Crumpton in Marina, CA. The kids were wonderful and they participated in each lesson enthusiastically. We always tried to plan our lessons ahead of time so what we presented was always related to something they know in their own culture. We learned several important concepts and ideas in class; they all turned out to be very useful not only when applied in our respective sites but also when applied in our daily lives.
This course reinforced some ideas that I already held, however when we were given the opportunity to implement them in the communities they made a great difference. Ideas and ideals such as those against racism and pro equality were upheld in each classroom. We supported and encouraged an understanding of what diversity means; the students at Crumpton did a great job at implementing those ideas and values.
Teaching those kids and attending class and participating in discussions based on our readings made me realize how important it is to appreciate our own cultures, as well as those of others. We learned the difference between fixing, helping and serving; which I had never seen from the angle offered by the authors of the articles read in class. We wrote weekly reflections from each of our sites to analyze and consider things that we had learn and whether there was room for improvement or not. We practice in English and Japanese which was always helpful so we become a bit more confident as the semester elapsed.
We created a couple presentations in which we put a lot of thought into the things we could contribute to the community and the students in general, as well as what we were getting out of it. The final presentation was intended to offer that deeper analysis on these aspects and our final reflection on everything we learned during those months.