Japanese Club

[Yu Yu Hakusho!]

[color=hotpink][font=arial][size=1][b]
Eariler this summer, I tried to transfer to another school in my district before I started my Freshman year in high school so I could take a course that my current school does not offer me-Japanese.
I went everywhere from the superintendent to the principals, but they all denied me because of where I lived. My parents even offered to drive me to the school with the Japanese course.
Currently, I am taking Spanish as my language alternative, mainly becasue it's so easy and I really need it living in Texas! ^^;; (hey, but knowing another language is always a good thing!)
So anyway, after being denied an opportunity to learn something really worthwhile, I have decided to form a Japanese club at my school. My parents tell me it will look good on my record and maybe if I get enough people to join and there is a lot of demand, I can get my school to teach Japanese here! I already have a lot of friends that think it's a good idea. I've talked to my counceler, but all she said was, "I don't know, talk to someone else..." She was a lot of help....but now I probably have to talk to my principal or something.

My question to you is, dear reader, what should I DO in Japanese Club? Tell me if my ideas sound ok:

-Make lesson plans since there are no teachers yet (meaning that I could take all my Japanese books and set up vocabulary for my club members to do, etc. We all will need to know a little something to begin with. Doing this can not only help me learn the language really well, but at the same time others are learning even without a teacher! Good...?)

-Set up get-together dates

-Have meetings at someone's house (maybe not good...)

Etc, you understand where I'm coming from. If you were going to be in my club, I just want to know what you would like to do in it or what you would like to learn.
Being how my life has been since the start of school, I have been in tennis tournments and band practices until 10 o'clock at night and I haven't had time for ANYTHING! Marching season is over in band and I'm in off-season tennis now so I finally have time to form this club. I just wish I had some idea what to do in it...and if all goes well, we should have either a teacher teaching Japanese by my Junior year if the demand is good, or I'll just have something else to go on my college application. My life goal at this point is to learn the languages of the world, and I want to be a linguist when I have to get a job.
But anyway, to get back on topic, what do you think would look good in a Japanese club?
Do you think I should include reading manga or watching anime or anything like that? Give me ideas!!!

Oh yeah, and thanks. You must be really bored now after reading all this-or maybe you just skipped down to the bottom like I sometimes do...[/color][/font][/size][/b]

[wrist cutter]

Good luck with that... while I honestly think, with enough thought and effort, the club could actually be a worthwhile experience for people, I can't imagine you getting much of a response.

Maybe it's just where I live, but by taking Japanese you are automatically a loser. I imagine that, if we had a club, by joining it you'd be worsening your social status even more. Few people are going to do that.

So I'd say, if you really want this thing to take off, make sure you have the right motivation going around. I'm not sure what it should be yet, but don't just put up advertisements like "Wanna learn Japanese!? Join the Japanese Club!". Don't even say "Join the Japanese Club", it just screams "this club is for geeks". It's a very tender area that would be hard to gain a bunch of support for.

But good luck nonetheless.

[Isus]

i am learning to speak japanese now, but no school around me offers classes, a friend oif mine went to japan on an exchange student program and she gave me all her books and things, it would be nice to have japanese club..........too bad i live in KY...

[Japan]

I am taking Japanese at my school right now. My school also has a Japanese club. What we do in Japanese club is watch anime, play video games, eat rice balls ^_^, and learn about the culture. We have it every other Friday. The next meeting is this Halloween after school. What we are doing for the special occasion of Oct. 31, is a COSplay party. Good luck. I hope that the stuff that my Japanese club does helps you out. Good luck!

[Guest Aku-ma Evil]

i think that the basics would be a good place to start, you know, telling time, basic hellos how are yous and goodbyes... the stuff you learn in spanish(only in japanese)
i would also suggest adding in some things on japanese media and culture, and make sure you have everything planned out thoroughly otherwise it'll blow up in your face.

if i could, id definately join your club, but i live in michigan (just alittle encouragement)

[Guest Midogel]

Yes. Learning french in school made it easier to remember other languages that I look into as well, anyone can take something away from the club. The problem with clubs, with my school anyways, tend to be small and made up of people who know each other anyways. Hmm, if you composed an elaboate system of word of mouth? just throughing out ideas, here.

[Impact Player]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Yu Yu Hakusho! [/i]
[B][color=hotpink][font=arial][size=1][b]
Eariler this summer, I tried to transfer to another school in my district before I started my Freshman year in high school so I could take a course that my current school does not offer me-Japanese.
I went everywhere from the superintendent to the principals, but they all denied me because of where I lived. My parents even offered to drive me to the school with the Japanese course.
Currently, I am taking Spanish as my language alternative, mainly becasue it's so easy and I really need it living in Texas! ^^;; (hey, but knowing another language is always a good thing!)
So anyway, after being denied an opportunity to learn something really worthwhile, I have decided to form a Japanese club at my school. My parents tell me it will look good on my record and maybe if I get enough people to join and there is a lot of demand, I can get my school to teach Japanese here! I already have a lot of friends that think it's a good idea. I've talked to my counceler, but all she said was, "I don't know, talk to someone else..." She was a lot of help....but now I probably have to talk to my principal or something.

My question to you is, dear reader, what should I DO in Japanese Club? Tell me if my ideas sound ok:

-Make lesson plans since there are no teachers yet (meaning that I could take all my Japanese books and set up vocabulary for my club members to do, etc. We all will need to know a little something to begin with. Doing this can not only help me learn the language really well, but at the same time others are learning even without a teacher! Good...?)

-Set up get-together dates

-Have meetings at someone's house (maybe not good...)

Etc, you understand where I'm coming from. If you were going to be in my club, I just want to know what you would like to do in it or what you would like to learn.
Being how my life has been since the start of school, I have been in tennis tournments and band practices until 10 o'clock at night and I haven't had time for ANYTHING! Marching season is over in band and I'm in off-season tennis now so I finally have time to form this club. I just wish I had some idea what to do in it...and if all goes well, we should have either a teacher teaching Japanese by my Junior year if the demand is good, or I'll just have something else to go on my college application. My life goal at this point is to learn the languages of the world, and I want to be a linguist when I have to get a job.
But anyway, to get back on topic, what do you think would look good in a Japanese club?
Do you think I should include reading manga or watching anime or anything like that? Give me ideas!!!

Oh yeah, and thanks. You must be really bored now after reading all this-or maybe you just skipped down to the bottom like I sometimes do...[/color][/font][/size][/b] [/B][/QUOTE]



Jesus christ, how come you don't tell me none of this!! I would be glad to help you out and stuff. I wanted to take Japanese but unfortunatly, they only had French, German, and Spanish so I decided to take Spanish NS since it would be easier for me. But yeah, when ever you need help with that, tell me and I'll give you ideas and stuff like that to help you around. You already know were to find me in the mornings so just walk up and tell me.

[Yu Yu Hakusho!]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by wrist cutter [/i]
[B]Good luck with that... while I honestly think, with enough thought and effort, the club could actually be a worthwhile experience for people, I can't imagine you getting much of a response.

Maybe it's just where I live, but by taking Japanese you are automatically a loser. I imagine that, if we had a club, by joining it you'd be worsening your social status even more. Few people are going to do that.

So I'd say, if you really want this thing to take off, make sure you have the right motivation going around. I'm not sure what it should be yet, but don't just put up advertisements like "Wanna learn Japanese!? Join the Japanese Club!". Don't even say "Join the Japanese Club", it just screams "this club is for geeks". It's a very tender area that would be hard to gain a bunch of support for.

But good luck nonetheless. [/B][/QUOTE]
[font=arial][size=1][color=hotpink][b]

(and sorry for not replying sooner!!)
Thanks for all of your ideas guys.

But I understand what you are saying, people at my school are the same way. I'd [i]never[/i] put up a poster saying, "Join Japanese club!" etc, etc, because all the people that would join would be the "yu-gi-oh" fans (no offense, but these are SENIORS with NO LIFE...) because I know it would sound totally redicilous. Anyway, I would totally embarass myself in front of the guy I like (who happens to be half-Japanese).

Although the wording for joining the club may be hard, a lot of the "bratty cheerleaders" (as some people define them) and the "jocks" that I know all have to take a foreign language and I know the majority of them would like to take something interesting like Japanese. It's an awesome and beautiful language to learn, and I know all sorts of people would probably be willing to learn it.
Hm. But that's just one step of the equation....[/font][/size][/color][/b]

[Guest Azure_Skies]

What school do you go to? I wanna go to! I'm sorry I'm not much help. I'd start with sentrence structure and vocabulary! Get some books an have the members help out too!

[Shinken]

Unfortunately for me, I'm stuck in upstate NY, so that not only means that I don't have Japanese as a language course option, but I also know very few people who won't laugh at you/punch you when you mention anime and the like. So, in short, a Japanese fan club would have little to no chance of taking off up here. However, I've got a suggestion: on the Independent Film Channel (Channel 550 for DirecTV) they have samurai flicks on every saturday (Zatoichi, Akira Kurosawa... Toshiro Mifune RULES!), and I've noticed that it really helps with the language. You occasionally learn new words, and it helps with sentence structure.

The bottom line: NY BLOWS!
(Good luck with the Japanese Club)