Spanish, Chinese, French, and German. These four foreign languages have been offered at Temple City High School for years.
With the recent departure of Ms. Judy Graunke, the only teacher in the German program, the administration chose to stop offering German classes after this school year. There’s a great candidate to fill in the void left by the German program: Japanese.
While many languages could take the place of German, Japanese certainly is the best option. According to a study done by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Japanese is the fifth most commonly studied language in K-12 US schools. It is even more popular than Chinese. This shows that there are plenty of people willing to study this language, so a potential program at Temple City High won’t lack students.
Japanese animation and media has also become increasingly popular among young people in the past few years. Learning Japanese can help one appreciate Japanese media as well.
Japanese is also an important language for business. Despite its relatively small land mass and population, Japan has the third largest economy in the world. Students who learn Japanese might be able to find employment in Japan as well.
Despite the fact that its script uses many Chinese characters, Japanese grammar is distinctly different from the grammar of any language taught at Temple City High School. Offering Japanese as a foreign language can open up students’ minds to different types of linguistics, which should have a positive effect on their language in general.
Students may take online classes for Japanese, but learning a foreign language effectively is almost impossible without proper interaction with a teacher. A computer simply cannot give the same instruction that a real, breathing person can in a classroom setting.
Taking classes at Pasadena City College or with a private tutor is an option. However, most students are unable to do this. Offering Japanese as a class at TCHS will give many pupils an opportunity to learn this language.
With its importance in business, popular culture, and uniqueness in its grammar, Japanese would be a great addition to the foreign language program.
TCHS School Newspaper