Japanese language education in the United States Totally Explained

Everything about Japanese Language Education In The United States totally explained

Japanese language education in the United States began in the late 19th century, aimed mainly at Japanese American children and conducted by parents and community institutions; over the course of the next century, it would slowly expand to include non-Japanese as well as native speakers (mainly children of Japanese expatriates being educated in international schools). A 2006 survey of foreign-language learners by the Japan Foundation found 3,217 teachers teaching the Japanese language to 117,969 students at 1,092 different institutions, a decrease of 16% in the number of students since the 2005 survey.

History

Origins

The earliest Japanese language instruction in the United States was aimed at heritage speakers. Japanese immigration to Hawaii began in 1868, and to the mainland in 1869. Issei parents, worrying about the increasing Americanization of their nisei children, established Japanese schools outside of the regular school system to teach the language and culture of their ancestral country. In Hawaii, the first schools were established in the 1890s; by 1920, the schools enrolled 98% of all Japanese American children in Hawaii. Statistics for 1934 showed 183 schools teaching a total of 41,192 students. On the mainland, the first Japanese-language school was California's Nihongo Gakuin, established in 1903; by 1912, eighteen such schools had been set up in California alone. Due to this shortage, the military's need for personnel competent in Japanese even before the US entry into World War II drove the Military Intelligence Service to establish its own specialized school aimed at training specialists to serve as interpreters, interrogators, and translators, the Military Intelligence Service Language School; initially based at the Presidio of San Francisco, it was later moved to Minnesota, first Camp Savage, and then later Fort Snelling. Many of the students were Japanese American. At the same time, Japanese language schools on the West Coast aimed at heritage speakers were closed down due to the Japanese American internment. Even in Hawaii, which wasn't affected by Executive Order 9066, authorities forced Japanese community schools to dissolve and liquidate their assets; however, after the war, the schools were revived with the support of issei, nisei, and non-Japanese community members. Enrollment in such schools declined compared to the pre-war period; for example, the Moiliili Language School in Honolulu, which with over 1,000 students in 1938 was the largest Japanese-language school in Hawaii, had only 85 students as of 2002.

Post-World War II

The first program aimed at training secondary school Japanese language teachers was established at the University of Hawaii under the provisions of the National Defense Act of 1958; it initially admitted 20 students. Enrollment in Japanese language courses in US high schools had the fastest growth rate out of all languages during the 1980s, the time of the Japanese asset bubble. During the 1990s, The College Board, a United States standardized testing agency, began to offer an SAT Subject Test in Japanese and conducted the first sitting of the Japanese Advanced Placement exam in May 2007; these examinations enable high school students to obtain college credit for their prior study of the Japanese language.
Japanese-language education aimed at native speakers began later, as the rise of the economy of Japan resulted in increasing numbers of companies sending employees and their families to the United States for short-term assignments. As of 2006, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology officially recognized three Japanese day schools in the United States, in Guam, Chicago, and New York. In addition, there were 74 weekend/supplementary schools, of which 29 were supplied with at least one teacher by the Japanese government.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Japanese Language Education In The United States'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://japanese_language_education_in_the_united_states.totallyexplained.com">Japanese language education in the United States Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.