{"id":6144,"date":"2017-05-09T15:11:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T19:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=6144"},"modified":"2017-05-10T12:39:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T16:39:17","slug":"e-town-professor-of-japanese-dedicated-to-equally-dedicated-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/05\/09\/e-town-professor-of-japanese-dedicated-to-equally-dedicated-students\/","title":{"rendered":"E-town professor of Japanese dedicated to equally dedicated students"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>According to Nobuaki Takahashi, dedicated students make a dedicated professor and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Takahashi, an associate professor of Japanese at Elizabethtown College, found the cyclic nature of student and teacher through his efforts to motivate his students. Although Japanese is a difficult language to learn when compared to other modern languages, Takahashi said he tries to keep students motivated and the subject matter enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really easy to give up or get overwhelmed,\u201d the professor said. \u201cIf I can feel that I\u2019m contributing to that enjoyment in any way, I think it\u2019s a pretty rewarding experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takahashi said he is thankful for the dedication of his students. \u201cStudents are motivated because they know it\u2019s hard,\u201d he said. \u201cNot many students will take Japanese just for the core. In that sense, I\u2019m lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

There are more questions from students that I don\u2019t think about as a native speaker.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On the receiving end, students fuel Takahashi\u2019s research and interest in Japanese studies. \u201cThere are more questions from students that I don\u2019t think about as a native speaker,\u201d Takahashi said, \u201clike all those subtle differences and meanings they ask about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takahashi described how native speakers easily grasp their first language, but when teaching a native language, they must be able to explain it. \u201cJust knowing it by growing up, that doesn\u2019t mean you can teach,\u201d Takahashi said.<\/p>\n

Takahashi\u2019s interest in teaching language came about during his middle and high school days. Living in Japan and taking English in school, Takahashi discovered that he did not like learning the language in a classroom setting but enjoyed the idea of English as a communication tool. A teaching assistant from Boston, Massachusetts, arrived at Takahashi\u2019s school, and the two struck up a friendship. When Takahashi learned that America did not have many Japanese programs, at the time, he made what he described as an \u201cinnocent promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go to the states and I\u2019ll be teaching English to whoever,\u201d Takahashi said to the teaching assistant.<\/p>\n

Two decades later, and Takahashi has reaped the benefits of his words. Though his direct connections to Japan, Takahashi can invite native Japanese speakers to E-town to provide students with unique experiences. These experiences have included a panel discussion with a Hiroshima survivor and performances of Japanese comedic styles. In comparison to Japanese programs at other Pennsylvania institutions, E-town\u2019s program has a raw authenticity, thanks to the connections held by Takahashi.<\/p>\n

The professor hopes to add courses in social issues and linguistics to the Japanese major and minor curricula. With his connections and dedication, as well at the dedication of his students, Takahashi may just find more time to dedicate to teaching Japanese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Nobuaki Takahashi, dedicated students make a dedicated professor and vice versa. Takahashi, an associate professor of Japanese at Elizabethtown College, found the cyclic nature of student and teacher through his efforts to motivate his students. Although Japanese is a difficult language to learn when compared to other modern languages, Takahashi said he tries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":6146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,8],"tags":[490,1128,53],"class_list":["post-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-modern-languages","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6155,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144\/revisions\/6155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}