Yusa

I had an interesting talk with Dr. Yusa, my Japanese professor. It's really strange, but she doesn't really seem so evil anymore; slightly crazy still, but not evil. This is kind of what I had always thought anyway, but it was amplified by only receiving 3 credits for a entire year in Japan. Its been two years now since I came back from Asia University, and I have realized that even if I had gotten more credits, it wouldn't have really done much for me since they would have been 200 level credits. It's kind of a symbolic thing. But I think that actually talking to Yusa has been good. I think that the more we be honest to her about what we think about the program and such, the more she will try to change things. I have definitely noticed that they way she teaches has gotten better. I think she also understands the way in which American students think too. She said yesterday that Chinese and Korean students will take anything that their teachers tell them as truth, and memorize every word. Japanese students are somewhat similar. American students on the other hand, study what they want to. They don't necessarily follow their professors every word. I think this makes us more independent, and research that we do can come out more creative and unique. This also makes it harder for teachers. They have to figure out what the students want or they will not be effective. I think she is trying to do this.

We also talked about what I am doing in the future and my job in Japan. She asked if I was going to do something related to computers, which I have considered. I was generally the person she asked about for tech problems because she knew I work for ATUS, but then she suggested that I could teach sailing. I was shocked. I guess I probably talked about sailing sometime, probably at her house last year when she had a party for the 300 level class. It made me realize that she actually knows something about us if we ever made a effort to talk to her.

I think the best thing that came out of our chat was that I was able to talk about what I thought were the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese program at Western. I let her know what I think most of us studying Japanese want. For me, becoming more communicative. Of corse, I wasn't completely at ease, I still couldn't tell her that we all hate the text book...