Preface

As I prepared to graduate from SFJS this year, I reflected on all the time I spent attending school each Saturday. On the one hand, I felt relief that I had finally finished 11 years of supplemental school work. But what I felt most was a sense of sadness that this time in my life had come to an end. I, like many other immigrant kids, moved to the US, not knowing what to expect in my new environment, and not knowing what was expected of me there either. SFJS provided a welcoming community of peers who shared similar experiences and feelings as me. The SFJS experience was an important part of my development, helping me to learn from my heritage culture while I was trying to adapt to a new culture in America.

Considering that “cultural heritage” is “an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values”(Heritage for Peace), I decided to create this book to recognize how SFJS has served in creating a stronger Japanese community in the US.

I interviewed some of my peers at SFJS who gave me their insights into the environment and experiences that it creates. I got permission from the school to take pictures, so I could showcase the unique environment at SFJS. I had a hard time deciding how to arrange the photos, graphic design elements, and text in order to create an accurate representation of the community. Through these struggles, I was able to get an even better understanding about how much this experience has influenced my life. I hope that this book can help more people understand the importance of heritage schools like SFJS for multicultural kids like me, trying to find themselves in a new culture.

Walking through the small gates of the local middle school that served as our weekend campus, I entered San Francisco Japanese School (SFJS) for the last time. I bowed at the teachers greeting the students at the front gate. It still didn’t feel real that this was my last day of attending SFJS. No more cramming for the kanji test in the morning or staying up until 3am to finish my essays. No more exchanging my bento with my friends or fooling around with them during break time.

When moving from their home country to a new country, immigrant kids can struggle adjusting to their new environment. Learning a completely new language is already difficult enough. There is also the added struggle of being thrown into a new culture without any way to ease in. On the other hand, multicultural kids, kids of multicultural backgrounds, can also struggle with feeling connected to their heritage culture, as they spend more of their formative years in their new country. This situation can cause many of them to develop an identity crisis based on their confusion about habits and values influenced by their heritage culture.

Communication in the Real World, published by the University of Minnesota, defines cultural identity as “socially constructed cate- gories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting” (“Foundations of Culture and Identity”). The most common aspect of identity among heritage kids is their relation to their ethnic and national identity to their home country. For those living in America, their self-identification is complicated. Because their relatives and roots exist in a place thousands of miles away, they often face issues with their identity and discovering who they are in the context of the dominant American society. With this constant confrontation between the mainstream culture and traditional culture, immigrant and multicultural kids can feel lost. I always felt that it was unfair that I had to attend an additional day of school every week, but having finally made it to graduation, I could appreciate the positive impact that SFJS had on my life.

I thought about my experiences there, how it influenced me during my formative years, how it taught me more about my heritage and about myself, and how it helped me to develop a more confident self identity. Through my experiences at this school, I believe that I was able to mold these two influences into my own personal identity in a better way, by adding the best parts of my heritage culture to the lessons I was learning in my new culture.

Chapter 1

Heritage schools, defined by the California Department of Education (CDE), are “Schools and programs that operate outside of compulsory education to offer instruction in the culture, traditions, or history, and language of a country other than the United States” (“Heritage Schools”). There are many heritage schools of different languages and cultures across America. The majority of heritage school classes take place on Saturdays. Some heritage schools are supported by the national government of the heritage country while others are run by local community organizations. The CDE has requirements for what heritage schools must offer, like education in a foreign language, education of tradition/ culture, and even culturally enriching activities.

SFJS is a Japanese heritage school in the Bay Area with classes held every Saturday. It was founded in 1968 and was created to help Japanese kids in the Bay Area to “grow into active players in the international society”(SFJS Website) as well as prepare those who intend to go back to Japan to continue their Japanese curriculum education. SFJS receives support from the Japanese government with curriculum guidance and textbooks as well as financial support for the administration of the school campus.

SFJS follows a similar system to schools in Japan. The curriculum uses textbooks approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education and all classes are taught in Japanese. The school year starts in April and ends in March. Elementary school has 6 grades, Middle school has 3 grades, and high school is shorter with only 2 grades. (In Japan they have 3 grades in high school. SFJS is one year shorter since some of the older students graduate from their US high school in the 2nd year.)

Class periods are divided into Japanese language, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. The Social Studies classes generally focus more on Japanese culture and have more of an international perspective. The Japanese classes are much more comprehensive. Subjects like Math and Science may have commonalities with the American curriculum but are taught with different tools and methods. According to Maranda N. Fulco of the Georgia College & State University, Japanese mathematics lessons focus more on problem solving and “typically includes an environment that encourages productive struggle and has high levels of communication and cognitive demand” (Fulco). This is different from American teaching methods which focus more on memorization of procedures, and less on developing the students’ conceptual understanding. Even though there are similarities with American schools, SFJS uses a Japanese approach in developing their students’ knowledge, thinking, and problem solving skills.

In SFJS, students are required to take many tests throughout the year. One of the most stressful of these tests is the weekly kanji tests. They test a student’s ability to read and write specific kanji , a Japanese writing system that uses Chinese characters. As the years go by, the kanji taught in class become increasingly intricate and challenging. Many students have negative opinions about the kanji test. Aloha Kato, a recent graduate of SFJS, states that these tests were her least favorite part of school. She reflects, “Every single week we had a test on kanji, and I couldn’t memorize all of them” (Kato).

In addition to in-class lessons and frequent testing, SFJS also assigns a large amount of homework each week, which causes a lot of complaints from students. Generally, the homework that is assigned comes from the Japanese language and Math workbooks that are distributed at the beginning of the year. Aside from workbook assignments, there are also essays assigned multiple times throughout the year.

SFJS tries to provide the same amount of teaching and knowledge to their students as if they were going to school in Japan. The curriculum can be difficult for its students to manage in addition to their compulsory classes at their American schools. But because of SFJS’ authentic approach, their students can get the benefit of a truly Japanese educational and cultural experience through the school.