Homeward bound. I’m on my way from Japan to visit my family in Oklahoma for the holidays. Even though I usually avoid traveling on major holidays like the plague, this year I decided to forgo my usual concerns and make a surprise trip. I was able to travel in real lux this time around, as I had one First Class upgrade certificate available to me, which would have expired at the end of the year if I hadn’t used it.  So I got to fly in International First Class on a newly-upgraded United Airlines Boeing 747. It was truly a magnificent experience.

Because only my mother knew of my impending arrival, the fact that I had crossed the Pacific came as something of a shock to my dear brother.  I wish I’d had a camera to photograph his face when he realized I was in town! He and I will be returning together to Japan next week, as he will be taking a reciprocal vacation there to see the sights of Asia.

Reflection. The trip home gave me some time to reflect on the outgoing year.  It’s been one of the most interesting twelve months in memory, full of milestones: leaving Skype, moving to Asia, becoming a full-time student again — all while watching the economy crumble. Though I’ve had my ups and downs along the way, I must say that this year has been a really wonderful one.  I’ve made some great new friends and rekindled old contacts.  Despite the world financial situation, I truly think that the horizons are broad and bright.

Of course, the most prominent element of this year has been studying Japanese at the Osaka YMCA Gakuin. I’ve been exceptionally fortunate to have so many kind and bright classmates. For instance, Mei Yu (photo, right) was in my elementary Japanese class from April through September 2008, and is now in one of the intermediate classes that parallels my own.  She helped me make it through our elementary class by providing really amazing encouragement to me and others in the class.

Language learning. Our instructors have been there for us all along the way.  Some are more “there for us” than others, but as a cadre I think that they are very much focused on the students. There are palpable differences between the pedagogy, or strategies of instruction, practiced in Asia and that used in the United States.  Post WW-II education styles in Europe and America have trended heavily toward the use of level-of-learning objectives and outcomes-based instruction review. Yet, my experience in learning Japanese is that the instruction method often borders upon rote learning (though I must stress that the instructional style is not entirely of this form).

For example, students may be directly influenced by their perception of success in learning and levels of expectancy–with realistically high helping to build confidence, and low (or unrealistically high) expectations helping to build incompetence. Bernat & Gvozdenko, “Beliefs about Language Learning”

Quite disappointing to me has been the lack of meaningful feedback from the instructors about one’s learning progress.  Am I shooting too high? How can I learn more effectively? These questions have been asked but largely left unanswered. I have felt, off and on, that the school’s instructors have little or no interest in whether the students succeed or fail, and that the instruction has been tailored to benefit those who already knew kanji (Chinese characters) or languages with grammar similar to Japanese, such as Korean.

When I enquired with our lead instructor about whether it would be wise for me continue in my current class or change to lower division one, I was told that she had an opinion but would not share it with me.  If I wanted to stay, I could stay; if I wanted to move, I could move.  While that afforded me ultimate latitude, I found it to be less than helpful. It took another hour of conference to get to a point where she would give me more helpful advice.  The verdict? My sights were set too high for the time available. Her advice turned out to be invaluable, but it was like pulling teeth to get to it.

All this said, I feel certain that my own lack of cultural awareness makes it very difficult to fit into the scheme that the Asian students more naturally follow.  If I take this as a learning experience and not as a “negative”, I will surely profit from it in the long run.

With all that in mind, I have my sights now squarely set on 2009, but with an eye on the past so I can hopefully avoid repeating my mistakes.