JSANZ, Japanese Language Speech Contest, winner Brennan Galpin and father Glenn. Penny Shino Pres JSANZ, Masayuchi Tsuchikawa, Japanese Consul, Jonathan Le Cocq, PVC Arts, Masayoshi Ogino, 10.9.15
Client, Tim Winfield Arts.
A special prize-giving to congratulate the first prize winner of the 2015 JSANZ Japanese Language Speech Contest was held at the University of Canterbury on 10th of Sept.
Dr Penny Shino, President of JSANZ presented Brennan Galpin (University of Canterbury) with the JSANZ trophy. Brennan also received a return air ticket to Japan as his prize.
It was an extremely competitive nationwide contest, with 15 finalists rigorously selected from each of New Zealand’s tertiary institutions. We hope that this triumph will encourage Brennan to continue his Japanese studies with renewed motivation and enthusiasm.
We would like to thank Professor Jonathan Le Cocq (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Arts) and Dr Rachel Payne (Co-Head of the Department of Global, Cultural and Language Studies) at the University of Canterbury for hosting this special ceremony.
The 42nd Japan New Zealand Business Council Conference was held in Tomakomai, Japan this year. Tomakomai is a city and port in Iburi Subprefecture in Hokkaido, Japan. It is the largest city in the Iburi Subprefecture and the fifth largest city in Hokkaido.
Dallas Nesbitt was able to attend the conference while she was in Japan. She took the opportunity to thank, in person, our generous sponsors, and to meet and talk with key people from both Japan and New Zealand.
The Fund offers five scholarships a year to students who are enrolling full-time in a first undergraduate degree in Japanese language. The purpose of this scholarship is to encourage top students to continue with their Japanese study at tertiary level. Preference will be given to those studying a conjoint degree or a double major, but not at the exclusion of those who are studying a Japanese specific degree. The closing date for applications is the 1 April 2015.
Dr Penny Shino, President of JSANZ, with the Ambassador of Japan, Mr Yasuaki Nogawa at the Japan New Zealand Business Council’s Annual Joint meeting.
Dr Penny Shino, President of JSANZ, attended the Japan New Zealand Business Council’s Annual Joint Meeting in Christchurch on November 24-26. The meeting took conference format with a series of presentation panels delivered by Japanese and NZ delegates spanning areas of business, industry, tourism, primary industry, creative enterprise and education.
The event was also attended by the Ambassador of Japan, Mr Yasuaki Nogawa, the NZ ambassador to Tokyo Mr Mark Sinclair, the former ambassador Mr Ian Kennedy and other diplomats. Outstandingly apparent throughout the meeting was the extent of Japanese investment in NZ and the huge contribution Japanese businesses make to the NZ economy.
And in the same way the courage and tenacity of New Zealanders seeking to trade with Japan, and the rich opportunities which remain were impressive. One challenge emerging from the event was for Oji Group (who produce Nepia – Napier – tissues) to re-brand their product with another Hawkes Bay name: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapiki- maungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. Anything seemed possible.
We live in a global village and an increasingly ethnically diverse nation where many languages are spoken – but don’t expect this to be reflected in the way our schools value language teaching. That’s the stark reality for Dr Adele Scott, who graduated from Massey University last week with a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Her thesis explored the role of languages teachers and the place of languages in New Zealand schools today.
Dr Scott, a former teacher of Japanese and French languages at New Plymouth Boys’ High School and senior lecturer in teacher education at Massey University, says teachers of additional languages at secondary and primary levels often felt undervalued in terms of timetabling and curriculum decisions, as well as government policy. She conducted an online survey of over 300 language teachers in both primary and secondary schools, and wrote three case studies to explore the realities of language teachers’ experiences in depth.
Dr Scott, past president of the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT), says despite a new learning area in the New Zealand curriculum to support the teaching of additional languages, and a number of government initiatives – as well as New Zealand’s history of teaching languages like German, French, Latin and Japanese – many language teachers feel devalued in today’s educational environment. “The main reason is that the languages are the only non-compulsory learning area,” she says. One of her main findings is that at primary level, teachers rarely chose to teach a language. Some have knowledge of one other language but are required to teach a different language, resulting in the need to learn that new language alongside their students. Difficulties at secondary level include being forced to teach combined levels in one class, to the dissatisfaction of all.
“Languages are the poor cousin in the school system – they often don’t have a voice,” Dr Scott says.
“How languages and language teachers are talked about within the school also has an influence, with comments like, ‘they don’t have much marking or prep’, or ‘they’re always off on fancy trips’. Sometimes other teachers talk in an unfavourable manner. The way languages are talked about and valued within the institution is critical to a positive sense of identity as a teacher of languages.”
“If you are embarking on a career as a language teacher, you need to have tough skin and be prepared to be an advocate. It’s a tenuous position.” Quoting one of the teachers in her doctoral study, she says:
“You can’t do languages as a curriculum area, you have to do languages as a person.”
The choice and level of language teaching offered at a school often comes down to the “whim” of the school principal and board of trustees, she says. This scenario, she says, highlights the need for a national languages policy – something NZALT has been lobbying for. New Zealand’s official languages are Te Reo Māori, New Zealand Sign Language (and English, by default), and all schools are required to provide access to Te Reo Māori under Treaty of Waitangi obligations. However, there is a general lack of understanding in the wider community about the value of learning other languages, Dr Scott says. The argument for doing so is often framed in terms of the potential business and international trade opportunities, “by monolingual politicians”, she says.
While these have merit, the broader benefits go beyond economic pragmatism, to include intercultural communication skills and understanding, as well as enhanced cognitive and personal development.
“What we are trying to do [through language teaching] is to open up the world for the learner. It’s not just about language skills, its about developing empathy for other people, for other ways of doing things. It’s about being open to other people’s viewpoints, and accepting that your way of doing and seeing things is but one of many in the world.”
“When you have more than one language at your disposal,” says Dr Scott, “your personality actually changes when you use it.”
Learning another language also teaches you to be a reflective and critical thinker, “because you are constantly making comparisons and positioning yourself in one world or the other.” These qualities and aptitudes are often overlooked by parents who simply expect – unrealistically – their child to finish school totally fluent in a language.
One qualifications policy anomaly, which she says needs reviewing, is that learning another language (with the exception of Latin and Te Reo) does not count towards NCEA Level One and Two literacy credits. Students can, however, gain literacy credits through studying health, agriculture “and just about every other subject on offer”.
“There’s a misunderstanding that because you are using another language you are not thinking in English. But it’s not until you learn another language that you take stock of your own language and how it works. If that’s not contributing to improving literacy in English, what is?”
Dr Scott is currently supporting schools with bids for the contestable $10m government initiative for the Asian Language Learning in Schools project, announced by the Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata in August this year. Schools who want to strengthen existing programmes or begin a new programme for Chinese, Japanese or Korean had to register their interest by November 20.
She’s also been creating profiles of Japanese language tertiary graduates for the Japanese Studies Aotearoa New Zealand language advocacy organisation’s website. It is one of several strategies to raise the profile of Japanese language through success stories of local speakers. Many tell her they persisted with their passion for the language, despite parental discouragement. Their interest and passion was driven through a personal connection, such as learning karate.
Dr Scott would like to see a campaign developed to educate school principals and parents about the importance of languages, particularly with New Zealand’s rapidly-changing demography, resulting from immigration. It means New Zealanders are being exposed to many more languages other than English – without leaving the country. “Languages tend to fall under the radar because we are not solving some health issue or world dilemma,” she says. “But actually, we are talking about the core of communication.”
The Japanese Language Education Global Network (GN) is an alliance that enables the exchange of information about Japanese language education around the world, with the aim of promoting international cooperation, practical activities for learning and teaching Japanese and international development of academic research. Currently, 10 countries and regions:
US, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Europe) are affiliated with this Japanese language education alliance. New Zealand is likely to join in the near future, through the admission of JSANZ to the network.
In order to alert ever more people of the workings of this network, and to better develop future activities, the GN has decided to take steps in a new direction. The very first step is to have a new logo designed to act as the GN’s symbol, and to enable the organization to become more widely known. In 2016, the International Conference on Japanese Language Education will be held in Bali, Indonesia. The newly created logo will be featured at this conference in all the posters, programs and signs and so on.
The successful logo designer will be given a certificate and will star on the JSANZ webpage.
Those with are flair for design are urged to spotlight Kiwi talent and create the new logo for this important network.
Instructions are attached (in Japanese only at this stage).
Educators of Japanese studies from all tertiary Japanese programmes in New Zealand and representatives of other stakeholder groups gathered at Massey University, Palmerston North, on September 13 and 14 for a workshop ‘Tertiary Japanese Language Education in New Zealand – Are We Giving Generation Z What They Want?’ The workshop was co-hosted by the School of Humanities, Massey University, and JSANZ, and funded by the Japan Foundation, with support from the Sasakawa Fellowship Fund for Japanese Language Education. Former Ambassador to Japan and Chairman of the NZ Committee of the Japan NZ Business Council Mr Ian Kennedy gave the opening address.
Former Ambassador to Japan and Chairman of the NZ Committee of the Japan NZ Business Council Mr Ian Kennedy.
The keynote address was delivered by Professor Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson, School of Humanities and Languages, UNSW Australia, the University of New South Wales, on the topic ‘Japanese Communities of Practice: Connecting Japanese language university students and the world beyond’. Professor Thomson also facilitated a lively and stimulating workshop on ‘Learner inclusive classroom activities: Towards promotion of learner autonomy and expression of learner agency’.
Participants came away brimming with fresh teaching strategies and keen to launch new projects to energise and advance Japanese language education in New Zealand.
The Sasakawa Fellowship Fund for Japanese Language Education in New Zealand is delighted by the Education Minister Hekia Parata’s announcement of more money for schools to increase the number of Asian language students to support trade and international relationships.
Professor Brigid Heywood, who chairs the fund’s management committee, says the extra $10 million over five years annnounced on Wednesday to set up new Asian language programmes and strengthen existing ones is “a wonderful initiative”, particularly if it encourages systemic changes in attitude about the value of people proficient in the languages of New Zealand’s major trading partners.
Professor Heywood, who is Massey University’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor Research, Academic and Enterprise, says that in recent years the importance of Japanese and other Asian languages has been frequently signalled in the media and in ministerial documents as a key to advancing multinational business relationships and export growth. “But there has been a mismatch between what is said at this level and what actually appears in terms of policy directives and implementation.”
Research commissioned by the fund last year into the decline in Japanese language education in New Zealand in recent years identified a complex interplay of factors.
“It is not compulsory at any level to learn a language in New Zealand, so it’s exciting to see policy makers moving away from the view of languages as a ‘nice optional extra’. Not only is it vitally important for New Zealand to have proficient speakers of te Reo Māori and of the languages of our trading partners, but the more intrinsic benefits that learning a second language confers on individual – and by extension on our society – are being increasingly recognised by employers, who are starting to seek out speakers of other languages.
“Research is clear that those who have learned a second language are better multi-taskers, have better memory retention, are better team players. There is even research to show that learning a second language can delay the onset of dementia by up to four years.
“Our stereotypical ‘English is all we need’ attitude is changing. We’ll need to do a lot more, systemically, of course to distance ourselves from this attitude, but the minister’s initiative is a great start. There is strong evidence that companies in the UK are losing business to their European counterparts, and English graduates losing out in the job stakes to their European peers, because of their inability to speak the language of their trading partners. It is exciting that we are seeing positive steps at the policy level to avoid this happening in New Zealand.”
In its programmes to support teachers and students of Japanese, the Fund strongly promotes the value of adding Japanese to law studies, business, engineering and science. “Employers are starting to call for employees with the particular skillset they seek, plus a language,” Professor Heywood says. “We need to work harder to get this message across to students and their parents. But equally, our educational institutions need to look at restructuring their programmes to make it possible for students to add a language to their programme of compulsory papers – with some courses, it is almost impossible to combine them. And let’s look harder at how we can make the study of a language compulsory at some levels in New Zealand.”
The Sasakawa Fellowship Fund for Japanese Language Education is a national programme set up in the late 1990s to support teachers and students of Japanese at all levels and across institutions. The funding comes from Japan but it is chaired and co-ordinated by Massey University.
The trust is planning to publish profiles of more than 100 New Zealand graduates in Japanese language, highlighting their successes in a wide variety of careers. One of them, Youth Japan New Zealand Business Council co-founder Jeanine Begg, speaks Korean as well as Japanese, has degrees in Japanese and political science, and is Antarctica New Zealand’s marketing and communications general manager.
