President's Message

I hope that all of the members have had a productive summer. The beginning of a new school year brings new hopes and realizations, situated in recent events.

Attending the 7th International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE) in July in Pusan as President of ATJ provided me with many learning opportunities. Here are some highlights that I would like to share with the members of ATJ.

The conference, held in conjunction with the Korea Association of Japanese Language and Literature, was held at the campus of Pusan University of Foreign Languages, overlooking the Pusan harbor. It was the largest ICJLE, with some 1,400 attendees, including approximately 900 from Japan. The theme of the conference was "Building a Broad Network for Japanese Language Studies."

In particular, the presentations - over 900 of them! - and the plenary symposium addressed issues of networking from a variety of perspectives. I was part of the plenary symposium roundtable, in which 11 representatives from around the world gave short presentations, followed by a panel discussion involving those in the audience. The disparity in the issues that people are faced with in different parts of the world was evident. For example, Japanese studies in Europe, as reported by Professor Toshihiko Kitagawa, is characterized by the increasingly border-less mingling of cultures and races on the one hand and an individualistic attitude that embraces multi-cultures and multi-languages on the other. In Australia, Professor Chihiro Kinoshita-Thomson observed, in terms of numbers, one in every 55 people study Japanese. At the same time, she estimated that only a handful - fewer than 500 - have advanced proficiency. A representative from the Korean delegation noted that in Korea, learners of Japanese are diverse, and the role of non-native teachers is becoming crucially important. She stressed the need for Japanese language policies and standardization and also suggested the need to establish Japanese language education for special purposes. While Korea has the largest number of Japanese language learners, with 910,000, the PRC boasts the largest number of college-level Japanese learners, with 118,000, more than double the number in Korea. Professor Chang-Ho Lin predicted that teachers of Japanese will need to pay closer attention to cross-cultural communication.

Here in the U.S., the Japan Foundation's most recent survey (2006) showed a rather drastic downturn in K-12 enrollment, but the Modern Language Association's survey in fall 2007 suggested that enrollment continues to grow at the college level. Students also seem more likely to go on to advanced levels. More learners of Japanese are using the language in diverse professional fields. The challenge for us is not simply to add or expand programs but to foster development of advanced skills that will enable learners to engage in both professional and personal endeavors involving negotiations with other users of Japanese. As we examine the many relationships among language abilities, cultural perspectives, and domain knowledge, we are likely to consider modifying our approaches to curricula and assessment in our programs.

The 8th ICJLE will be held in Sydney, Australia, July 13-16, 2009 with the theme of "Bridging the Gap between the Japanese Language and Japanese Studies." Please see the article on page 7 and check the conference website for updates: http://jsaa-icjle2009.arts.unsw.edu.au/en/index.html. I hope many of you will be able to take part in this growing forum for the exchange of ideas and findings related to Japanese language education.