Hey Andrew,

Sure—I haven't technically taught a class so I can't necessarily answer from that perspective, but I'll answer as best I can!

Q1: UW-Madison has a pretty exceptional Japanese program, so I certainly saw many of my classmates become proficient like myself. This was all the more true during my study abroad at Keio University, as immersion is so important toward attaining fluency. (I think you know the YouTuber Dōgen? But I forget if I mentioned that he was a dorm-mate of mine during study abroad. So there's an example for you.) In the other direction, I know that while English education in Japan is mandatory, people don't necessarily build any confidence in speaking (even a high school English teacher might not be confident in speaking English!). College level is surely better, but I think this aspect of language study in Japan might be weaker than you'd expect, for a country that puts a lot of diligent effort into learning about other places.

Q2: Perhaps I can answer "how have I seen my friends and myself change". :) I think the neatest thing about learning a foreign language is how becoming able to "think in the language" works. At first you have a sort of switch that you must consciously flip (like "okay, going into Japanese mode now"), but as you attain fluency, that switch disappears, and you realize that when you have a thought to express, you can choose to manifest it in English or Japanese or whatever. After that point though, one can have the comical situation of "back-translation", where maybe you wanted to manifest the thought in Japanese because you had just the perfect phrase for it, yet you need to be speaking in English right now, so you come up with some words in English to fit that Japanese phrase—in spite of the fact that English is your native language and Japanese is not, haha.

Q3: Yeah, my courses at UW and Keio both prohibited speaking English at all during class time. I think this is super important. Whether or not you're in the country where the target language is spoken, inside the classroom should be as much of an immersion experience as possible—it's crucial to create a situation where you need to speak that language.

Good luck!

Ross

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Hello, Andrew,

How interesting you're including foreign language in your language project!

Here are some answers.

Q1. Learning a foreign/world language requires or develops skills that are created on a long-term basis. I have taught in various places that have given background and experiences that can lead to this. Actually, every place I have taught does this. The issue of mastery of a foreign language depends on the individual. It depends on the time put in, individual aptitude and skill, and, of course, experience outside the classroom, which is necessary. The classroom can give background and skills, but to be proficient, as you worded in your question, a student must have real life, long-term experiences, much more than a class can give.

Q2. Upon learning another language, I have seen students begin to understand how language and structure work, how the pieces fit together within a language as well as how language vocabulary and structure relates from one language to another. I have seen students become more open to intercultural experiences. I have seen students see how the language we speak in some cases can influence how we see the world. (That is an aspect that I regularly try to emphasize.) I have seen students become interested in cultural and linguistic differences and use that as a means to connect as opposed to separate.

Q3. I currently teach 3 sections of Spanish 1 and 1 section of Spanish Speakers 1 and 1 section of Spanish Speakers 11. Spanish 1 is not primarily in Spanish. Grammar explanations and background is in English, and guided communication is in Spanish. In Spanish Speaker 1 and 2, the class is exclusively in Spanish. We focus on structure, vocabulary, and current pertinent world or local topics.