Finally the Japanese language course is back at the University of Ottawa !
Since my research is on second language acquisition, I always wanted to teach Japanese and luckily I got the opportunity to teach one of the three sections this semester.
Fortunately, all three sections were full and each of them has around 35 students which is quite big for a language class. On the first day of class, I was very excited, but also very nervous. To begin with, I introduced myself and asked my students why they were studying Japanese. As expected, everybody had different reasons and interests but one thing in common was that they were eager to learn the Japanese language and culture. I was also amazed that almost all the students really wanted to go to Japan someday. This gives them a good motivation to study! I believe that motivation and passion are very powerful elements to achieve one’s goal and I could feel that in the students (well, I should say “many of the students” ^^).
Teaching definitely gives me something different in my Ph.D life. This makes me think not only about the Japanese language, but also about Japanese culture and manners. For example, students ask me questions such as “How deep should I bow when I meet Japanese people for the first time?” I did not expect this kind of question to come in the class (but I demonstrated in the class anyways).
Overall, I very much enjoyed teaching Japanese and consider it a precious experience. This is not only beneficial for my research (L2 acquisition) but also for my Ph.D life because it brings me a lot of interaction with students who really want to learn. I truly hope that I could help them to keep studying the language and someday they exchange their culture with Japanese people as well (hopefully in Japanese).