JAPN 301SL
This course was the required upper division service learning course. It required us to not only complete readings which pertained to multiculturalism and language development but also demanded we practice what we have learned in the classroom of a local elementary school to foster multicultural understand among youth. I enjoyed the readings for this course as they provided me with a new perspective on the semantics of the word service in contrast to help or assistance. We concluded that service was a term used without the hierarchy that help implies. When one serves another, he or she acknowledges equal status and position to work together towards progress whereas when one helps another, the implication is that one party has something the other party does not which creates an unbalanced structure of top-down assistance. The class was very demanding, it required we "serve" the children of Crumpton Elementary School by teaching them what we knew about Japanese culture and language in a way that fostered multicultural understanding to disenfranchised minority youth. There was a divide however between theoretical understand as was learned in the course material, and what material could be taught practically to elementary school students. All in all, the experience was a challenging but somewhat rewarding as my group and I gained teaching experience and were admired by many of our pupils.
This course was the required upper division service learning course. It required us to not only complete readings which pertained to multiculturalism and language development but also demanded we practice what we have learned in the classroom of a local elementary school to foster multicultural understand among youth. I enjoyed the readings for this course as they provided me with a new perspective on the semantics of the word service in contrast to help or assistance. We concluded that service was a term used without the hierarchy that help implies. When one serves another, he or she acknowledges equal status and position to work together towards progress whereas when one helps another, the implication is that one party has something the other party does not which creates an unbalanced structure of top-down assistance. The class was very demanding, it required we "serve" the children of Crumpton Elementary School by teaching them what we knew about Japanese culture and language in a way that fostered multicultural understanding to disenfranchised minority youth. There was a divide however between theoretical understand as was learned in the course material, and what material could be taught practically to elementary school students. All in all, the experience was a challenging but somewhat rewarding as my group and I gained teaching experience and were admired by many of our pupils.
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