Hideko Furukawa on the art of teaching Japanese
By Caroline Crawford
Photo by Bob Handelman

Twenty-three years ago, when Hideko Furukawa began teaching Japanese language and culture at Saint Michael’s, they were “clearly different times” than they are now, she says. She had approximately 40 students, almost all business majors, who were studying the language to be at an advantage in a business environment where the Japanese economy was growing by leaps and bounds, much to the consternation of the American business community.

“Now my students are from all different backgrounds,” she says, including international students from Barbados, Saudi Arabia, Korea and Croatia. “Most students in my class want to have a challenge from a different kind of language experience. Maybe they’ve taken a Western language and they want to do something different, or they’ve studied Japanese in high school and want to explore it with more depth. Some want an Asian language; some are interested in international business and want to have Japanese on their resume. And some love anime [Japanese animation] or are interested in the [video] game industry. If you want to work in the game industry, you have to have Japanese language skills.”

Furukawa teaches Japanese language as well as a culture course that she co-teaches with history professor Ke-wen Wang. “The students are all very engaged in the course material,” she says. “They are surprised to learn how everything in Japan is so different—to know that the school year in Japan begins in April, for example, rather than in September. So, little things like that, and then larger things like religion and how in Japan it’s common to practice the two religions of Shinto and Buddhism, versus the monotheistic religion they’re most familiar with.”

In teaching a language drastically different from English, Furukawa begins with the most basic building blocks of the language and then “we build blocks upon blocks. By the middle of the third semester of study, I can see them thinking in Japanese—sometimes even by the end of the second semester. I see them relax a little bit more and become a little more at ease. They start putting together some wonderful sentences, and when I read those sentences, then I know they have it, and I get very excited.”

Furukawa takes great pleasure in teaching students her native language, and appreciates its challenges. “I have always loved my job,” she says. “It’s a delight and a privilege for me. It’s my language, and I appreciate them making the effort to learn it.”