Japan Society: Language Coordinator

Hi, my name is Lisa Odagami Grosshans, and I am running for Language Coordinator.

Whether you are learning Japanese out of curiosity, to get in touch with your Japanese identity, or even just to challenge yourself, I believe that the Japanese lessons that JSOC provide are generous and empowering. As a language learner myself (French), I know the importance of having access to these lessons, but I also know what can be done to improve.

Mainly, I will ensure that we are catering to many learning styles and provide more support for teachers so that they are confident and comfortable in lessons.

My goals are to:

• Incorporate engaging and variable activities in the lessons e.g. song translation exercises
• Create more opportunities for students to expose themselves to Japanese (more events!)
• Actively recruit teachers throughout the year to lessen the pressure/stress on them
• Regularly collect feedback from students and teachers for improvement

I adore teaching. I’ve tutored music, math, science, English and Japanese through multiple organizations – each time, I loved watching students fall in love with the things that I love. I believe that my direct experience tutoring as a Level 2.5 teacher, my fluency in Japanese and my passion for teaching all equip me well to fulfil this role, and I would be honored to extend my skills and experiences into it, to make a difference. Thank you for your time and consideration! よろしくお願いします。

Hi I am Craig, currently a second year undergraduate Law student. I am not from Japan myself but I love Japanese food, anime, and pretty much just Japanese culture in general but the main reason why I am so invested is because Japan Society is where I met my best friends and I want to make it a unique society that everyone can enjoy. I think I can contribute greatly as part of the new committee as I am great at contributing new ideas to the committee to hopefully make Japan Society even greater (plus ultra!). In specific, I received lots of feedback about the lower level language lessons being too fast or too hard so if elected as language coordinator, I am looking to revisit the syllabus and make the lessons more accessible for the students. As a former student and current teacher for Japanese, I can understand the difficulties that students are having since I've also had similar problems when I was learning the language. Hopefully this way both the students and teachers can enjoy the lessons more which in turn leads to the society being more lively and diverse. If anyone would like to see a modern, multicultural Japan Society, then please cast a vote for me, yoroshikuonegaishimasu!