無理と言えば。。。

This is my fourth year teaching Japanese at the high school level. I often find that there exists this ceiling of how proficient our students can be, or how "good" someone can get at a language. I also sometimes run into situations where teachers of a language have set the bar for their students, and going beyond that expectation seems 'impossible". 

What is really possible at the high school level? At the adult level? I know that for me, I have grown every single year I have taught Japanese. Every year my language becomes more proficient, kanji that I introduce gets perfected, and as I search for higher-level text to expose my students to, I am consequently having to look things up I don't know. I am always learning. That's one of the best aspects of teaching. 

Growing up learning Japanese, I would get shocked reactions about how it seemed "impossible" and how someone would never be able to do that if they were me. Even teaching Japanese now, when I meet a new person and tell them what subject I teach, I find myself still justifying my job, how it is necessary and relevant. And most of all? Achievable for students. 

In my field I have run into people who when they see my syllabus, or my kanji list, they also are surprised at its "difficulty". Does Japanese have difficult aspects? Yes. Every language does. But I really don't like the word "hard" or "impossible 無理” Kanji is hard if you never learn kanji, and one day decide to learn a bunch of them at once. Speaking is hard, if you never speak, and then decide to have a conversation. These skills are built from day one. Exposure to "hard" kanji is necessary. Having students guess at things is essential. Having students speaking in tiny chunks from the beginning is what makes them confident enough to take risks later on.

As I teach AP Japanese for the first time this year, and I look at its kanji list and prompts and tasks, I see things that I have been doing for the past 3 years. I have heard this said at a few conference PD sessions I've attended, and I will repeat this here now. AP IS BUILT FROM LEVEL 1. IT STARTS AT LEVEL 1. THESE SKILLS CANNOT BE INTRODUCED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AP. 

The coolest thing about how "hard" my class is? My students get to ask me lots and lots of questions. And sometimes, if I don't know the answer, we find out together! The struggles that we have are where learning takes place and patterns and words become second nature.