What do you think about a Japanese Immersion Public Charter in Ward 7?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Another issue is how xenophobic and closed-off Japanese society is, i.e., even if you studied Japanese ages 4-22 and speak it fluently, you're still a foreigner doomed to live on the margins of society as either exotic or undesirable. And let's be super honest, that goes double for African-Americans, unfortunately. There are exceptions, sure, but this is the unfortunate norm.

Exact same thing can be said about the United States.

If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

You are on crack if you seriously believe that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Another issue is how xenophobic and closed-off Japanese society is, i.e., even if you studied Japanese ages 4-22 and speak it fluently, you're still a foreigner doomed to live on the margins of society as either exotic or undesirable. And let's be super honest, that goes double for African-Americans, unfortunately. There are exceptions, sure, but this is the unfortunate norm.

Exact same thing can be said about the United States.

If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

You are on crack if you seriously believe that.

Your arrogance and failure to see the racism around you proves my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Japanese is the one of the least accessible languages in Washington DC. There are no language immersion programs east of the Anacostia River. I would love to see this happen.
Give me your opinions.

I thought the original posting was a joke, are people really serious about this? OP please respond.

OP here....My original posting is not a joke. I do appreciate all of the constructive feedback. I am a life long resident (DC born and bred). Since I was a child, I always wanted to learn another language outside of the given choices of Spanish, French, Latin. I want the same thing for my kids. Since I became a parent, I always wanted to see DCPS expand its language choice to better reflect the fact that DC is a world capital.

I get this, but why a Charter School? That's the bit I'm having problems with. You could start a club or program at an existing school. Wanting your child to learn another language does equate with creating a school that serves to educate all children in all content areas. There seems a general lack of focus on the purpose of a school as oppose to the purpose of education and how to marry the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Japan is actually 4th on the list of countries the US exports too - after Canada, China, and Mexico. While China appears to have better growth prospscts thatn Japan, one can never be sure of the future. And of course Japan has an important culture, and in the period that its economy has slowed down, it has developed a vibrant and influential popular culture.

I don't know that makes Japanese immersion viable in DC, but I do think its a viable and important language.

This is where honestly your analysis of the utility and importance of Japanese is way off. It's not about whether we export a lot to a country. Export patterns and product needs/trends change all the time and trend up and down. That is not something to hinge longterm commitments like what language your child will learn on. The reason Chinese is so much more likely to be relevant in the workplace for decades is 2 things: the amount of money the US owes China (in the billions at least), and the number of people in the world who speak only Chinese. The US is inextricably linked to China for a loooooong time. These factors are not true for Japan.

You thinking it's viable and important is lovely. It doesn't make it important enough to enough parents that they will send their kids to a school to learn it and commit their time and resources to it, no matter what ward it's in. If the vast majority of those parents would jump ship the moment they got into a Spanish or Chinese bilingual school, and the Japanese school has no waiting list while the Spanish, Chinese and French schools have hundreds on their waiting lists, then Japanese isn't the right language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Japan is actually 4th on the list of countries the US exports too - after Canada, China, and Mexico. While China appears to have better growth prospscts thatn Japan, one can never be sure of the future. And of course Japan has an important culture, and in the period that its economy has slowed down, it has developed a vibrant and influential popular culture.

I don't know that makes Japanese immersion viable in DC, but I do think its a viable and important language.

This is where honestly your analysis of the utility and importance of Japanese is way off. It's not about whether we export a lot to a country. Export patterns and product needs/trends change all the time and trend up and down. That is not something to hinge longterm commitments like what language your child will learn on. The reason Chinese is so much more likely to be relevant in the workplace for decades is 2 things: the amount of money the US owes China (in the billions at least), and the number of people in the world who speak only Chinese. The US is inextricably linked to China for a loooooong time. These factors are not true for Japan.

You thinking it's viable and important is lovely. It doesn't make it important enough to enough parents that they will send their kids to a school to learn it and commit their time and resources to it, no matter what ward it's in. If the vast majority of those parents would jump ship the moment they got into a Spanish or Chinese bilingual school, and the Japanese school has no waiting list while the Spanish, Chinese and French schools have hundreds on their waiting lists, then Japanese isn't the right language.

actually our trade patterns have NOT varied that quickly, and I think the chinese debt panic is over wrought. It is in fact much easier for financial flows to change, and they establish less real human interaction than trade flows. BTW, the US owes almost as much to Japan as to China http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/who-holds-our-debt/

As for the numbers of people who speak only that language, thats not relevant if most of them are farmers, or even factory workers. What matters is how many jobs you can get from knowing a language. Thats why French is more important than Portugese - even if many francophones also speak an african language.

Now none of that means Japanese is viable for a charter school, and I already said that in my earlier post. There are lots of either ways to teach a language.

But the notion that Japanese is equivalent in importance to say Norwegian is not just exaggerated, but shows a complete misunderstanding. And the paranoia about Chinese debt (which does NOT give the Chinese power over us) is something that needs to be responded to whenever it comes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Another issue is how xenophobic and closed-off Japanese society is, i.e., even if you studied Japanese ages 4-22 and speak it fluently, you're still a foreigner doomed to live on the margins of society as either exotic or undesirable. And let's be super honest, that goes double for African-Americans, unfortunately. There are exceptions, sure, but this is the unfortunate norm.

Exact same thing can be said about the United States.

If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

You are on crack if you seriously believe that.

Your arrogance and failure to see the racism around you proves my point.

Show me a video of a Japan-born white or black person mocking Japanese xenophobia in perfect Japanese and I'll believe you.

[Anonymous]

OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Japan is actually 4th on the list of countries the US exports too - after Canada, China, and Mexico. While China appears to have better growth prospscts thatn Japan, one can never be sure of the future. And of course Japan has an important culture, and in the period that its economy has slowed down, it has developed a vibrant and influential popular culture.

I don't know that makes Japanese immersion viable in DC, but I do think its a viable and important language.

This is where honestly your analysis of the utility and importance of Japanese is way off. It's not about whether we export a lot to a country. Export patterns and product needs/trends change all the time and trend up and down. That is not something to hinge longterm commitments like what language your child will learn on. The reason Chinese is so much more likely to be relevant in the workplace for decades is 2 things: the amount of money the US owes China (in the billions at least), and the number of people in the world who speak only Chinese. The US is inextricably linked to China for a loooooong time. These factors are not true for Japan.

You thinking it's viable and important is lovely. It doesn't make it important enough to enough parents that they will send their kids to a school to learn it and commit their time and resources to it, no matter what ward it's in. If the vast majority of those parents would jump ship the moment they got into a Spanish or Chinese bilingual school, and the Japanese school has no waiting list while the Spanish, Chinese and French schools have hundreds on their waiting lists, then Japanese isn't the right language.

actually our trade patterns have NOT varied that quickly, and I think the chinese debt panic is over wrought. It is in fact much easier for financial flows to change, and they establish less real human interaction than trade flows. BTW, the US owes almost as much to Japan as to China http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/who-holds-our-debt/

As for the numbers of people who speak only that language, thats not relevant if most of them are farmers, or even factory workers. What matters is how many jobs you can get from knowing a language. Thats why French is more important than Portugese - even if many francophones also speak an african language.

Now none of that means Japanese is viable for a charter school, and I already said that in my earlier post. There are lots of either ways to teach a language.

But the notion that Japanese is equivalent in importance to say Norwegian is not just exaggerated, but shows a complete misunderstanding. And the paranoia about Chinese debt (which does NOT give the Chinese power over us) is something that needs to be responded to whenever it comes up.

I'm the PP you're responding to and I actually really appreciate that link to "factcheck.org". While I would never put myself out there as some sort of actual expert on national debt, I consider myself pretty well-informed. I had NO idea that our debt to Japan was still that close to our debt to China. Thanks for the link, I appreciate being enlightened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Another issue is how xenophobic and closed-off Japanese society is, i.e., even if you studied Japanese ages 4-22 and speak it fluently, you're still a foreigner doomed to live on the margins of society as either exotic or undesirable. And let's be super honest, that goes double for African-Americans, unfortunately. There are exceptions, sure, but this is the unfortunate norm.

Exact same thing can be said about the United States.

If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

You are on crack if you seriously believe that.

Your arrogance and failure to see the racism around you proves my point.

Show me a video of a Japan-born white or black person mocking Japanese xenophobia in perfect Japanese and I'll believe you.[/quote

You're a moron and have no idea how to follow logic. Showing you such a video does nothing to change your understanding of racism in the US and only serves to reinforce your perception of Japan as racist and xenophobic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

Um actually you can OP. I work in Planning and study demographic trends all day. The world is shrinking in terms of unique cultures/languages so yes its actually quite easy to predict "hot" languages over the next 20-30 years if your define hot by the number of predicted speakers. Japanese is a dying language unfortunately unless every woman in Japan gives birth to at least three kids or 2) they try colonizing other countries. So far neither is likely to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

Um actually you can OP. I work in Planning and study demographic trends all day. The world is shrinking in terms of unique cultures/languages so yes its actually quite easy to predict "hot" languages over the next 20-30 years if your define hot by the number of predicted speakers. Japanese is a dying language unfortunately unless every woman in Japan gives birth to at least three kids or 2) they try colonizing other countries. So far neither is likely to happen.

Actually, I work in a closely related field to demography myself. If Japanese is indeed a dying language, then that alone can heighten the importance of opening a Japanese immersion program. Especially if it is your heritage language.

[Anonymous]

Japanese is not a dying language. It is the de facto, probably de jure, sole language of a very large island country with an almost solely monolingual culture.

Sure Japanese birthrates are low. But until we have less than a million Japanese speakers, there is no risk of language loss. Let's check in again in the year 2300.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

Um actually you can OP. I work in Planning and study demographic trends all day. The world is shrinking in terms of unique cultures/languages so yes its actually quite easy to predict "hot" languages over the next 20-30 years if your define hot by the number of predicted speakers. Japanese is a dying language unfortunately unless every woman in Japan gives birth to at least three kids or 2) they try colonizing other countries. So far neither is likely to happen.

They are asking and giving incentives to Peruvians of Japanese descent to move to japan. Maybe they will extend to the offer to Japanese descendants in other countries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

Um actually you can OP. I work in Planning and study demographic trends all day. The world is shrinking in terms of unique cultures/languages so yes its actually quite easy to predict "hot" languages over the next 20-30 years if your define hot by the number of predicted speakers. Japanese is a dying language unfortunately unless every woman in Japan gives birth to at least three kids or 2) they try colonizing other countries. So far neither is likely to happen.

Actually, I work in a closely related field to demography myself. If Japanese is indeed a dying language, then that alone can heighten the importance of opening a Japanese immersion program. Especially if it is your heritage language.

Not enough Japanese in the DC proper to enroll to keep the heritage language alived, is there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.....
My reasons for choosing Japanese are NOT political nor economical. The most important thing is that children have the opportunity to learn a second language. Whichever language a parent chooses for their child is a personal decision. We cannot predict which language is going to be the HOT language 20 or 30 years from now. If this idea is pursued, copious research will be done to address the ideas or issues expressed here and beyond.

Um actually you can OP. I work in Planning and study demographic trends all day. The world is shrinking in terms of unique cultures/languages so yes its actually quite easy to predict "hot" languages over the next 20-30 years if your define hot by the number of predicted speakers. Japanese is a dying language unfortunately unless every woman in Japan gives birth to at least three kids or 2) they try colonizing other countries. So far neither is likely to happen.

Actually, I work in a closely related field to demography myself. If Japanese is indeed a dying language, then that alone can heighten the importance of opening a Japanese immersion program. Especially if it is your heritage language.

Different poster - that may be a good reason to start and maintain a Japanese language program for those committed to it. It is in NO way a reason to start a public charter school with public dollars when all signs point to it a) not being fully enrolled, b) not being perceived as an important language for a critical mass to learn, or c) it having DEcreasing relevance in a global way, instead of INcreasing (or already major) relevance now.

The proof will lie in whatever steps OP takes next (or doesn't take). Maybe OP should explore both options, a full on K-6 charter school, or a Japanese language program, and see what the difference in feedback/interest/commitment from surveyed parents is. If s/he is wise, OP will start there before doing a bunch of other work to get this started.