More Shorecrest students signing up for Japanese

Published 12:01 pm Monday, March 3, 2008

When Sachiko Smith, who teaches Japanese at Shorecrest High School, came to America several years ago, Japanese culture wasn’t cool.

“No one ate sushi, it was (considered) so weird,” she said. “If my kids bring sushi or rice bowl to school, they are shamed. They asked me to make a sandwich.”

Today, Japanese popular culture is hip, international business is booming and many teens enjoy Japanese video games and manga comic books. Those are a few reasons why Japanese classes at Shorecrest are in demand, Smith said.

The language has become increasingly popular among local students in recent years.

Etsuko Kimura, the Japanese teacher at Shorewood, has seen the numbers grow steadily since she came to the school three years ago.

“I think it’s Asian culture is so cool to young, especially boys,” she said. She mentioned sushi, foreign films, video games and manga as examples.

Asian culture is widely available and accepted in the Puget Sound area, and there are a number of international businesses.

“There’s lots of teriyaki chicken,” Kimura said with a laugh.

Kimura teaches 150 students at Shorewood — five classes of 30 students each — but for next year there are 176 students signed up for the course.

“I don’t think I can teach all by myself,” she said.

Given the Shoreline School District’s financial situation, she doesn’t know if a new teacher can be hired.

At Shorecrest, Smith teaches 150 students, and her classes are at capacity. She’s heard students say they couldn’t get in the first year, so they come back a year later.

The combined third-and-fourth-year class at Shorecrest has 37 students.

“We don’t have enough seats for students to sit on, so (some) sit on couches,” said student Nick Costa.

The courses’ popularity is all the more surprising because Japanese is a hard language for Westerners to learn.

“The first year is very hard because you’re learning a different alphabet,” said Costa. “It puts a lot of kids off.”

There’s also a lot of homework.

Costa took Japanese because it was a challenge and because it might further an engineering career, given the international nature of business, he said.

Jake Hanegan, a third-year Japanese student, has no career aspirations for the language. He took it because he heard it was a class people really enjoyed.

The students in her class become close, Smith said, because they stay together for three or four years. She took students to Japan this winter, and the class goes on outings during the year.

Last week, they visited Nikkei Manor retirement home in the International District of Seattle, where they performed a traditional play called “Kaguyahime — Moon Princess” for seniors who speak Japanese.

Student actors, who wore robes, kimonos and masks on the top of their heads to simulate samurai hair, performed the play in Japanese from memory. Afterwards, they chatted with residents in Japanese.

“It’s remarkable to hear them speak Japanese so clearly,” said Nikkei resident Tama Tokuda.

What didn’t surprise her is that the students were learning the language.

“No, I had heard they learn different languages,” she said.

The next outing for Shorecrest was to be a Japanese speech and skit contest held today, March 30, at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. Shorewood students also planned to attend to perform their skit “Ninja Takes Over Alderwood Mall.”

Smith enjoys the way her students seem to soak up the language, despite its difficulties.

“My students are so enthusiastic,” Smith said. “It’s such a joy.”