Japan Society: Language Director

Hello Japan Society members, I’m Jansen Ball, a first year studying astrophysics and am running to be the language director for Japan Society next year.

Japanese is a beautiful language with a weighted history and origins of characters and many idioms, several alphabets and a deep tradition which many Japanese learners may not have experienced fully; and I would like to make it my goal to be able to share my passion in this language to the members of the society!

Spending two enjoyable terms as a Japanese language teacher for the society using my online language tutoring experience, the lessons presented many learning opportunities for both students and teachers, and I now find myself with a motivation to run for a committee position and implement ideas that I’m sure will be beneficial to the society and any potential learners.

First, I understand it is difficult to actively use the vocabulary and phrases learnt in the classes, which are sometimes case specific. Through the idea of one of the teachers this year, we attempted role plays which seemed to be effective; also helping to bring students closer to teachers. Ideas such as these I hope to carry forward.

As well as this, I would like to present further lesson structures, to preserve and grow further and interest in Japanese and invite more students to the language classes. For example: teaching Japanese in context of history, Japanese internet culture and practical Japanese for travelling in Japan! I think that these lessons will be great for members of the society