こんにちは Konnichiwa (Welcome)
Hello students and parents/guardians,
My name is Hiroko Schierman, a Japanese teacher at Albemarle High School. Welcome to our Japanese program! Please call me "Schierman Sensei". "Sensei" means "Teacher".
I am a native Japanese speaker. I was born and raised in a prefecture (like a state in the US) called Okayama. I went to a college in Tokyo, earning my bachelor's degree in American Studies. After the college in Tokyo, I moved to US and earned a Master's degree in Theater. What is common between teaching Drama and teaching Foreign Language? It is all about communication! Our program is for beginning learners of Japanese language and culture, and we have four different levels, Level 1-4. In each level, students will learn to communicate in Japanese through reading, listening, speaking, and writing. This program is focused not only on memorization of grammatical rules and vocabulary but student's overall communication skills in Japanese.
This site is useful for both parents/guardians and students of our Japanese program. You can find a practical help, such as a general contact form to get in touch with me, syllabus, or a link to the class contents, as well as the gallery of student's work. Please feel free to explore and familiarize yourself to this site.
I hope to provide the enjoyable and authentic learning opportunities to improve your skills. Looking forward to learning together!
Please contact me with any questions, concerns, and/or comments.
Contact Info: [email protected]
My name is Hiroko Schierman, a Japanese teacher at Albemarle High School. Welcome to our Japanese program! Please call me "Schierman Sensei". "Sensei" means "Teacher".
I am a native Japanese speaker. I was born and raised in a prefecture (like a state in the US) called Okayama. I went to a college in Tokyo, earning my bachelor's degree in American Studies. After the college in Tokyo, I moved to US and earned a Master's degree in Theater. What is common between teaching Drama and teaching Foreign Language? It is all about communication! Our program is for beginning learners of Japanese language and culture, and we have four different levels, Level 1-4. In each level, students will learn to communicate in Japanese through reading, listening, speaking, and writing. This program is focused not only on memorization of grammatical rules and vocabulary but student's overall communication skills in Japanese.
This site is useful for both parents/guardians and students of our Japanese program. You can find a practical help, such as a general contact form to get in touch with me, syllabus, or a link to the class contents, as well as the gallery of student's work. Please feel free to explore and familiarize yourself to this site.
I hope to provide the enjoyable and authentic learning opportunities to improve your skills. Looking forward to learning together!
Please contact me with any questions, concerns, and/or comments.
Contact Info: [email protected]
World Food Day in Japan: Onigiri Actions
This year, we participated in a World Food Day Campaign, Onigiri Actions 2016, organized by a non-profit organization TABLE FOR TWO. Our classes made onigiri (rice balls), took pictures of them, and send them to their website (http://jp.tablefor2.org/campaign/onigiri/en/about/) .
Check out how we joined their effort to improve the food issues around the world!
Check out how we joined their effort to improve the food issues around the world!
Japanese Children's Festival
Thank you, the students and their families who came to the festival! Our students did a great job, trying new food & games, and helping out at the shaved ice booth & the raffle table. I saw some of them playing "Go" game (a Japanese board game). Fantastic!
We also showed a video clip, all of our students covering a Japanese song, at the festival. We cannot thank enough two great helpers in the process, Mrs. Narumi, who coached student's singing, and Mr. Chance Dickerson (AHS), who took care of both audio and visual technical aspect of this project. I have some pictures from the festival and the video clip here. Enjoy!
We also showed a video clip, all of our students covering a Japanese song, at the festival. We cannot thank enough two great helpers in the process, Mrs. Narumi, who coached student's singing, and Mr. Chance Dickerson (AHS), who took care of both audio and visual technical aspect of this project. I have some pictures from the festival and the video clip here. Enjoy!
Here is one of the comments from the audience.
"Thank you for sharing your class's video at the children's fest. The images of your students made a strong impression on me, especially where they were recording the chorus and where they were posing in front of the camera. Your video was nothing like commercial music videos. Everyone on the video, and probably also taking the video, were high school students right here in Charlottesville. It reminded me of my time in high school, in Kobe, Japan, back in the early '90s. I was a mixed bag of dreams and hopes, together with fears and insecurities. I suppose many of your students are too. I wish your students good luck as they journey out into this wild world."
"Thank you for sharing your class's video at the children's fest. The images of your students made a strong impression on me, especially where they were recording the chorus and where they were posing in front of the camera. Your video was nothing like commercial music videos. Everyone on the video, and probably also taking the video, were high school students right here in Charlottesville. It reminded me of my time in high school, in Kobe, Japan, back in the early '90s. I was a mixed bag of dreams and hopes, together with fears and insecurities. I suppose many of your students are too. I wish your students good luck as they journey out into this wild world."