As a senior in college when I was faced with the tough decision of what to do after graduation, I was seriously torn between graduate school in Japanese studies or taking a teaching job in an elementary or high school. Though the decision was very difficult, entering a profession that did not involve teaching was never a consideration of mine. I possess a love for sharing what wisdom and knowledge I have with others, and challenging them to think in new and innovative ways.

I am now completing my fourth and last semester as a TA at PENN. Teaching has been the highlight of my graduate school experience. I have been a TA for both Chinese and Japanese Civilization (AMES 90) and for Intensive Beginning Japanese (AMES 85). Each semester has brought new challenges, all of which I face with enthusiasm. In my limited teaching experience, I have found that a teacher’s enthusiasm is contagious and is more important than appearing all knowing to her students. Furthermore, I find adaptability to a class’ personality, interests, background, and content is an essential characteristic of a good teacher. With each new semester and each new challenge, my teaching philosophy and style have changed to meet the demands of my students and the course material. I am a firm believer that a teacher learns just as much from her students as they do from her.

My first semester as a TA I taught Chinese Civilization to two sections of primarily Chinese or Chinese-American students. Not speaking Chinese and being a specialist of Japan, I dedicated myself to learning the material thoroughly and made a conscious effort to encourage the students to share their wealth of knowledge based on their own experiences outside the classroom. On the first day of class I was very open with my students about my background and my limited experience with Chinese culture. I admitted my own limitations with confidence in my ability to teach them and a respect for what they have to offer me. I think my honesty established a respect more solid than a false pretense of being the expert in Chinese language, literature, culture, religion and history would have. This was made apparent by many comments I got in my teaching evaluations at the end of the semester. My obvious hard work in mastering the material established a hard work ethic for my students as well. Honesty, humility, and letting the students know that they have insight that is valuable to me are teaching qualities I learned during my first semester teaching at PENN.

My second semester I taught Japanese Civilization, and content-wise I found myself in much more familiar territory. However, my second semester I faced the new challenge of juggling sensitive issues such as the Nanjing Massacre and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in classes consisting of students educated in China, Japan, the US and Korea. Getting all of my students with a diverse background to analyze and interpret such events and to view history from a variety of angles was a great challenge. Once again I had each student share his/her unique experience learning about these large issues with the class to make the larger point that there is no one “correct” narrative in History. Getting my students to see and understand that history consists of a multiplicity of narratives, often contradictory, was quite rewarding. Nothing has satisfied me more than watching a student slowly open his/her mind to new ideas over the course of a semester. With my intimacy with the course material, I was able to delve deeper into my students’ minds and urge them to view Japan and history in a new light. I incorporated innovative teaching techniques into our class discussions. I had my students participate in some pretty heated debates, we made use of audio and visual materials, and I even performed a mini-gift giving ritual with them to illustrate points about gift giving customs in Japan. Furthermore, as a WATU fellow, I was also able to concentrate more attention on their writing, and I felt that this personal attention helped them immensely, and it taught me a lot about effective and non-effecting editing techniques.

Finally, over the past two semesters I have been a TA for Intensive Beginning Japanese. As a non-native speaker of Japanese, gaining the trust and respect of beginning language learners has also proven an immense and satisfying challenge. I now find myself standing in front of only eight students, teaching entirely in my second language, and being thrust into a very intensive environment by which I have grown to know my students on a much more personal level than ever before. I spend eight hours a week in class with my students, in addition to offering them five two hour review sessions per semester on my own time in the evenings, and grading their homework everyday, their quizzes three times a week, and five exams during the course of one semester. In addition to all of our classroom related activities, I also schedule extra-curricular social activities for my students. I have found a language class that provides little cultural information to be somewhat lacking, so to improve the quality of their learning experience and to further motivate my students in their pursuit of fluency in Japanese, I have arranged cultural activities for them. We have watched animation, gone to a Taiko drum/dance performance, picnicked under the Sakura trees, and next week will be participating in a Zen meditation session with a Zen master in University City. I also plan to take them to the Japan House when that opens again for the spring and possibly to do karaoke. Though I have fun doing these activities, the effort and time I devote to them is based primarily on my sincere desire to spread knowledge and appreciation for Japan and Japanese culture.

Makishima-Sensei and I have a very orderly and punctual method of teaching and grading which I have found to be very effective in a language learning environment. Working with Makishima-Sensei has proven an invaluable experience that has taught me how to structure and regulate a classroom in an orderly and controlled way that was not possible in the discussion style environment of a content course. Teaching language has forced me to completely re-evaluate my teaching techniques and has illustrated to me the immense impact that close bonds to students can have on their performance. Last semester every single student in our class made a final grade of an A—something that has not happened before in Makishima-Sensei’s many years of teaching this class. Makishima-Sensei’s and my students’ incredible hard work has inspired me to work even harder to provide them with the education that they deserve. Over this past year I have developed an increasing sense of belonging to a learning community. I work very closely with Makishima-Sensei and all of our students to provide a class that is fun, rewarding, and stimulating. The importance of getting to know my students and teamwork have been the main two lessons I have learned from these past two semesters of teaching.

There have been times when I have felt worn down and ready to throw my hands up in defeat when faced with the frustrations of my research and stress of my coursework. The one thing that has kept me going and has motivated me to keep pushing myself is my firm belief that teaching at the college level would be the most fulfilling profession for me and a dedication to my students. I love standing in front of a class and being handed a 50 minute golden opportunity to impact the minds of a group of young, hard working, intelligent individuals. I love getting to know them and offering any support I can in their academic lives. Writing letters of recommendations or editing students’ papers for them long after they cease to be my students are things I do gladly because for me teaching is not simply my job, or a financial necessity, but it is a way of life.

Being recommended for this award means more to me than being chosen would. There is no reward for my hard work over the past two years than student appreciation. I am deeply touched.