Visiting teacher offers unique learning opportunity for LSW Japanese language students

Lincoln Southwest High School is one of nine schools in the country hosting a visiting Japanese teacher for the next two years as part of a program that pairs native Japanese-speaking teachers with their American counterparts in the classroom.

Southwest teacher Tammy Cunningham will co-teach her Japanese courses with Yu Hiraoka as part of the Japanese Language Education Assistant Program, or J-LEAP, which is funded through a partnership between the Laurasian Institute and the Japan Foundation.

The J-LEAP program paid for Cunningham and Hiraoka to attend a five-day training session in Seattle in late July. On July 30, they flew back to Lincoln, where Hiraoka will stay with a host family for at least the next three months as she gets acclimated.

Sitting in Cunningham’s classroom just days before the start of school, they both bubbled with excitement to get started with their co-teaching experience.

“This is a very exciting thing for my students and for me,” Cunningham said. “We will be able to learn from Yu's perspective as a young teacher who was born and raised in Japan, and it will be very motivating to speak with a native speaker on a daily basis.”

Cunningham lived and co-taught English in Japan after she graduated from college 18 years ago. Needless to say, the Japanese language has evolved since that immersion experience. “I’m sure I’m a little out of touch with slang and some of the words being used now.”

Hirakoa experienced a similar teaching arrangement but from the perspective of a student learning to speak English in Japan.

“In Japan as a student, it was very nice to have English native speakers as teachers,” Hiraoka said. “Their classes were very fun and they were good at motivating students to study. It was exciting.”

Cunningham has taught Japanese at Southwest since the school opened in 2002. Southwest is the only LPS school that offers Japanese and it continues to grow in popularity. There are 30 students enrolled in the introductory course this fall.

“I can’t wait to introduce Yu to my students and likewise them to her,” Cunningham said. “I think we’ll make a great team.”

“I’m ready to start,” Hirakoa added. “I’m ready to teach - and to learn.”

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