March 28, 2005, Findlay, Ohio – At the young age of seven and eight, a group of elementary students from the Findlay area are learning Japanese language and culture thanks to The University of Findlay’s Japanese Program and the Findlay After and Before School Session (FABSS) Program.

During the last several weeks, the youngsters have been meeting after the regular school day is over with UF students in the University’s Japanese Program and several community volunteers. During the eight-week session, the UF students, together with Japanese community volunteers, work with the elementary students to teach them how to speak and read Japanese through a series of games, songs, activities and lessons. The goal is to teach students the basic language skills needed to communicate in the Japanese culture, including days of the week, numbers, greetings and directions.

Funding for the classes comes from a grant from the Community Foundation.

According to Dr. Hiroaki Kawamura, associate professor Japanese, the program is a great educational tool for both the college and elementary students. “This after-school program is a way for our students to use their knowledge about the Japanese language and culture to teach younger students and also to engage in a joint project with native speakers of Japanese from the community,” Kawamura explained. “And learning Japanese, especially at a young age, is particularly important in a community like Findlay because there are about 300 Japanese-speaking people living in the area.”

Miki Kokubun, a graduate student in UF’s TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Program and a native of Japan, is one of the students teaching in the program. According to Kokubun, the program gives her a chance to apply what she has learned in her graduate classes to an actual classroom. “The hands-on approach we use in FABBS is totally different from what I used to use in my classroom in Japan, which focuses entirely on grammatical elements of English. I like how we teach Japanese in the FABSS program, which clearly reflects a foreign language as a tool for real communication,” Kokubun explained.

FABBS and The University of Findlay are also planning a summer language program that will be held in June and is open to students in the first, second and third grade from the Findlay area.

For more information about the summer program, contact Tiffani Murray-Hogrefe, FABSS Program Coordinator, at 419-420-7050 or at fn_murrayho@NOACSC.ORG