Iain is a teacher of Japanese and Mathematics.
Japanese language education
Secondary:
Studied Japanese for five years at high school
Tertiary:
Completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Japanese at the University of Otago which included papers in language, Japanese film, literature and culture.
Completed a Graduate Diploma of Teaching secondary in Japanese and Mathematics.
Motivation to begin Japanese
Iain began studying Japanese because it was compulsory at his school to learn another language. He benefited greatly from a school trip to Japan in Year 10 when he was home-hosted. The return visit of his host sister to New Zealand the following year motivated him to step up his learning so that he could communicate with her. Iain believes that it was from these initial connections that the challenge of learning Japanese first took hold and a subsequent visit to Japan sealed his interest in both the language and the culture.
Skills gained
As well as the ability to read and write both the hiragana and katakana writing systems Iain can also write around 1000 kanji and recognise a further 1000. He has also developed the ability to have a semi-fluent conversation with a native speaker and enjoys participating in a variety of Japanese cultural activities such as hanami and formal meals.
Current employment
Iain is a secondary-trained teacher of Japanese and Mathematics and currently teaches both subjects. He also uses his Japanese skills to support international students from Japan. He is hoping to take school trips to Japan in the future.
Iain feels the skills he has acquired to date could lead to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Japanese Embassy, or teaching English in Japan.
Time Spent in Japan
Iain lived in Osaka for a year in 2008-2009, teaching English through the JET programme. This extended stay in Japan helped him to refine his conversational Japanese as well as learn other language-related aspects such as slang and regional dialects. Living in Japan also enabled Iain to become aware of which images and stereotypes of Japan were inaccurate or greatly exaggerated. He also came to have a much more nuanced view of Japanese people and culture.