Moscow high school partners with University of Idaho for Japanese cultural exchange

Paradise Creek Regional High School in Moscow has partnered with an instructor of Japanese at the University of Idaho to provide students with a unique cultural experience for the next several weeks.

Azusa Tojo, an instructor of Japanese at UI, was contacted by the school a few months ago and has since been volunteering her time twice a week to work with students interested in learning more about the culture, language and culinary arts in Japan.

“We’re doing very basic stuff, but at the same time I’ve tried to incorporate some cultural aspects into each lesson,” Tojo said. “It’s been a great experience so far.”

Brian Smith, principal of the high school, said the lessons are a rare opportunity for students to learn about a culture different from their own.

“It is a true cultural submersion that is providing our unique student population an awesome learning experience,” he said. “It is through these types of partnerships that we are able to facilitate outside-of-the-box learning.”

According to Tojo, who has been with UI for two years, the students she’s working with were already interested in Japanese culture but didn’t know how to speak the language. For a few hours a week, she gets to impart her wisdom on the eager high schoolers.

“I’ve been teaching them how to introduce themselves in Japanese because it’s very important when you meet somebody for the first time,” she said.

She’s also been helping the students learn how to count, say their age, ask questions and practice other standard greetings in the language. Later in the quarter, she’ll teach them how to make sushi — particularly, fortune rolls.

Tojo hopes to connect the high schoolers with some of the students she teaches at the university.

“I’m trying to bring two exchange students at UI who are from Japan,” Tojo said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for them to see an American high school and I think it’ll be great for the high school students to meet some native speakers. They’ll get to practice the Japanese they’ve learned so far.”

Another community member, Judy Sobeloff, has been teaching the students how to write haikus, a type of short-form poetry that originated in Japan.

Alyssa Dyer, a 10th-grader at the high school, first became interested in Japanese culture by watching anime. She said the fantasy series “Attack on Titan” is one of her favorites.

“A lot of people like anime,” she said. “So we’re already kind of immersed in that language.”

Tojo’s lessons allow Dyer and nearly 30 of her peers to learn about the culture in more depth — an opportunity she says they wouldn’t otherwise have.

“It’s really exciting because I don’t think I would’ve had the chance to learn about other things like Japanese cooking at a different high school,” Dyer said.

The school’s smaller size allows the elective curriculum to be tailored to the students’ particular interests, said to Ruby Jackson, academic strategies teacher at the school. Paradise Creek Regional High School has a total of three teachers.

Jackson says she tries to incorporate a variety of topics into the curriculum each quarter, including personal finance, cooking and yoga, to help students build life skills and become successful after graduation.

She said more than a few students expressed an interest in learning Japanese early on.

“I remember when I walked into our physics class, which has every student in it, and I asked, ‘Who’s interested in learning Japanese?’ and everyone went, ‘Me!’ … We were thrilled that Azusa would be willing to come work with our students,” Jackson said.

Tojo says the students have been keeping up with what they’ve been learning, even when she’s not at the school.

She hopes one day they’ll be able to go to Japan and use the skills they’ve learned to experience the culture first-hand.

“I’m so pleased to see that all the students are so engaged and ready to learn another culture’s language which is completely different from their own,” Tojo said. “I strongly believe that knowing a foreign language can give you a life-changing opportunity. It’s part of the reason I live in the U.S. right now.”