Japanese language school in Pasadena offers adult classes
December 2006 Cultural News
Haruyo Kelly of Northridge, center right, teaches Japanese language to (from left) Hody Jih of Arcadia, Polly Galanukan of Azusa, and Hideo Hirata of Monterey Park at Pasadena Gakuen. (Cultural News Photo)
By Gavin Kelley and Shige Higashi
Pasadena Gakuen, which has taught Japanese language and culture to children since the school’s founding in 1935, announces that language classes for adults are now available.
The Japanese language school, located at 595 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena, currently instructs more than 80 students from elementary to high school age on Saturday mornings from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute. It is affiliated with the Japanese Language School Unified System, also known as the Kyodo System.
Following the morning classes for children, native Japanese instructors Tamiko Wieland, Haruyo Kelly, and Yoko Nasu, teach the afternoon adult classes.
The impetus for the adult class came when Teresa Watanabe, veteran Los Angeles Times staff writer, called Kyodo System’s main office in Korea Town seeking a Japanese language tutor. The main office referred her to the Pasadena Gakuen because of its proximity to Watanabe’s residence, and Wieland was assigned as Watanabe’s tutor.
Watanabe’s interest made the Pasadena Gakuen teachers realize that adults also want to learn Japanese. So, in September 2005, Wieland began instructing the adult class on Saturday afternoons from 1:30–3 p.m. In the Fall 2005 class, five adults enrolled.
By September 2006 interest in the classes grew, and Pasadena Gakuen assigned Wieland, Kelly, and Nasu to teach the adult classes.
At present, there are 4 classes varying in levels. Wieland class with five students becomes the level 2, and focused on conversation, reading, and writing as requested by the students. The level 1 class started for beginners in past September. The original Wieland class, which is now the level 4 class, has still one student, a researcher with a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology who is learning how to read Japanese literature.
“Adults all have different reasons for learning,” Kelly explains. “In my class, I spend most of the time in conversation.” In her current intermediate class, she has three students of varied backgrounds.
One of these is Hody Jih of Arcadia who was born in Indonesia, has a Japanese wife, and has spent several years in Japan. His children attended school in Japan, and as a result, are advanced students in the Japanese language.
Polly Galanukan of Azusa was born in Thailand to a Japanese-speaking Taiwanese father who taught her about Japanese culture and language. She began studying Japanese classical dance in Orange County in the Wakahisa Kai, and because her teacher and the other students of the dance class speak in Japanese, she is now studying Japanese at Pasadena Gakuen to gain a better understanding of her dance lessons.
Hideo Hirata of Monterey Park, a second generation Japanese American, has been practicing Kendo (martial art of Japanese sword) for eight years at Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute. Five years ago, while on a trip to Japan, he discovered that he had second cousins living in Kyushu. “I told myself, ‘Now that I have relatives, I have to improve my Japanese,’ ” Hirata explained. “I always wanted to learn, but that was a big incentive.”
For Kelly, preparing for the adult classes may require extra work because she has to refer to a variety of books and devote more time for conversation, but she says, “There’s a good feeling in adult classes and it makes it fun to teach.”
For more information about adult Japanese language classes, call the Kyodo System’s main office at (213) 383-4706 or visit the Website at www.kyodosystem.org.
Gavin Kelley is a Los Angeles-based writer who is currently working on a compilation of short-stories.
Shige Higashi is Publisher/Editor of Cultural News.