Language Resident/Assistant Name:  

Kozue Matsumoto  

Day and Date:  

Tuesday March 3 & 16, 2021   

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):  

Intermediate & Advanced 

Class theme/topics discussed:  

  • Stereotypes towards Asians and Half Japanese people 

Goal of the class:  

  • Think about stereotypes  

How did you structure the class?  

  1. Language Table Reminder (5 min) 
  1. Study Break date? (1 min) 
  1. Good News? (10 min) 
  1. Asian Stereotypes (45 min) 
    1. What kind of Stereotypes exist towards Asians and Half Japanese?  ? 
    2. Have you had such experiences?  
    3. High school experiences? students hang based on race? 
    4. What is stereotype?
    5. Why does this happen? 
    6. Internalized racism in Japanese people?
    7. Why do we need to talk about?  
    8. What stereotype do we have?
    9. What can we do for that? 
  2. Asian history and now
    1. Idea of model minority  
    2. At the same time no matter how hard we work, there are hate crimes against us 
    3. Hate crime against Asians over covid 
  3. Japanese history 

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)  Class agreement, breakup rooms 

Zoom 

What worked well in this class? What did not work?   

Intermediate:

  • Today’s topic was complicated and not easy to talk about. So I was wondering how long this was going to last. But students shared a lot of experiences and thoughts around the topic.  
  • We are all Asians in this class. I believe that this fact helped them to talk more honestly and share their own personal stories.  
  • I appreciate their honesty and effort to discuss the complicated and sensitive issues. And they had a lot of ideas, thoughts, and experiences related to it.  
  • They said that the more they think the more difficult and complicated the issue looks, but they said that such complexity shouldn’t discourage them to keep talking about it.  
  • There are a little more silent this time as they needed to think and find a way to say in Japanese. At the same time, things that they said were a lot longer and more complicated than other classes.  

Advanced:

  • We talked about stereotypes. This turned into a little different topic from the 11.1 class. Students in the 11.1 class are all Asian Americans who live in the USA. Students in this class are half Japanese and lived in Japan. Experiences around stereotypes created the topic around “why do Japanese people think about us that way?” 
  • They also witnessed Japanese people’s reaction to their white fathers and had some thoughts around that.  
  • They also think about their Korean friends and Japanese people, and how different their attitudes towards their own cultures. 

How could this class be improved/ modified? 

  • Depending on students’ awareness on the topic, some introductory video or a good ice breaker might be helpful. This particular group of students have some awareness already, and all are Asians. This situation might have made it easier to discuss the topic.  
  • I also shared some of my own experiences for a few times, which helped them encourage them to share their stories and related ideas.  
  • It was interesting to hear what they say about the topic. They have a lot to talk about. It is possible to spend multiple classes for this topic.
  • Also it would be interesting to spend another hour to think about Japanese culture as national culture and more regional cultures, such as Kyoto culture, Osaka culture. Some peole think that their culture is Japanese culture. Some Japanese people think their culture is their regional culture (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Tohoku, Okinawa, etc.) instead of general Japanese culture