We want to set up Online Japanese Academy!
Help us starting up the "Online Japanese Academy" for the children of Japanese heritage background in Australia!
Hello, I'm Yumiko. I am a support for my friend Yukiko, AKA "Japanese Science Mum," of J-Kids LAB (science workshop presenter for the children of Japanese cultural/linguistic background).
Yukiko has been running science workshops for children of Japanese cultural/linguistic backgrounds in Australia since 2019. She lives in Melbourne with 2 children of her own and has been passionately supporting the children's need for learning and communicating in their heritage language.
Currently, there is only a limited choice available when children from Japanese heritage background in Australia want to learn Japanese in a formal school-like setting. Either enroll into a supplementary Japanese school, a special language school where they learn Japanese as a "second language" or take up private lessons (this often means the parent who speaks Japanese acts as a teacher at home). As the number of Japanese people migrate and settle overseas grows, these are some children falling through the gap due to the insufficient places available in the school setting or struggle to juggle their regular schooling with additional lessons on weekends.
There are of course other opportunities for those children to put their budding Japanese to practice in a less formal, out-of-the-school setting. Many families (including myself) regularly take a trip back to Japan for studying, visiting family & sight-seeing during the school holiday. Or take up an interest/hobby activity such as music or sports lessons that are provided by Japanese coaches (so the communication is in Japanese), and make close friends with the families from similar backgrounds to have as much catch-up time for getting used to the Japanese listening-speaking environment.
These learning opportunities are based on their interest and create fun memories. A real-life experience like this becomes a source of the children's motivation to continue learning their heritage language and to foster their identities as Japanese-Aussie with multi-linguistic skills.
However, since 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, these real-life learning opportunities have been heavily restricted and not available for many families. We were forced to stay at home, the only social connection we had with each other during those lockdown times was online, through digital contents. Yukiko's business J-Kids LAB has also undergone a similar transition as she adopted these changes, and through this experience, she has acquired a new set of skills to connect, present to, and support online participants effectively and inclusively.
Now seeing many children not being able to sustain their learning opportunities, Yukiko feels it is her new mission to present them with an alternative opportunity, the Online Japanese Academy, where all learning happens online, with programs that are fun-based and open to the individual interests. The active learning method used in the programs will maximize the children's learning ability in a safe judgment-free environment where every member will be encouraged to participate and express themselves using Japanese as the main communication tool.
Your financial support is crucial for the starting up of the Online Japanese Academy and will be hugely appreciated. Please help us support these children, the new citizens of the global universal world, and the future bridge between the people in Australia-Japan, and many more countries and cultures.
The examples of program activities
- Digital contents production eg. voice collage sing-along
- Live streaming by the academy kid members
- Online workshop with the tutors (member's interest-based) eg. movie-making, youtube training, science, art and craft
- Online family challenge (member's interest-based)
- Online Kana/Kanji/Reading competition
- Onsite event and workshop (subject to the COVID19 restrictions)
- Onsite kids-teach-kids workshop (subject to the COVID19 restrictions)
Goal: $10,000 - to run the Online Japanese Academy for 4 months (June to September 2021).
There is also a Japanese crowdfunding campaign happening at the same time as this fundraising. If the total of 2 campaigns falls short, the period of the class will be shortened. If the total is over our goal, the period will be extended.
[Japanese crowdfunding campaign page]
https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/369287
How the fund will be spent:
- Administration and staff wages $3,000
- Program activities planning and provisions $2,500
- Digital contents production $1,500
- Tutor fees $750
- Logo, web design $250
- Postage, communication, printing cost $1,000
- Fundraising site handling fees $1,000
NOTE:
For the first academy year in 2021, we aim to provide the class to only the children/families who are able to participate in the activities without the language assistance (the class will be held 100% in Japanese, maybe with some visual and audio cues) living in Australia.
We hope to expand our target participants in the near future if the 2021 academy is successful.
Thank you for your understanding.
Hello, I'm Yumiko. I am a support for my friend Yukiko, AKA "Japanese Science Mum," of J-Kids LAB (science workshop presenter for the children of Japanese cultural/linguistic background).
Yukiko has been running science workshops for children of Japanese cultural/linguistic backgrounds in Australia since 2019. She lives in Melbourne with 2 children of her own and has been passionately supporting the children's need for learning and communicating in their heritage language.
Currently, there is only a limited choice available when children from Japanese heritage background in Australia want to learn Japanese in a formal school-like setting. Either enroll into a supplementary Japanese school, a special language school where they learn Japanese as a "second language" or take up private lessons (this often means the parent who speaks Japanese acts as a teacher at home). As the number of Japanese people migrate and settle overseas grows, these are some children falling through the gap due to the insufficient places available in the school setting or struggle to juggle their regular schooling with additional lessons on weekends.
There are of course other opportunities for those children to put their budding Japanese to practice in a less formal, out-of-the-school setting. Many families (including myself) regularly take a trip back to Japan for studying, visiting family & sight-seeing during the school holiday. Or take up an interest/hobby activity such as music or sports lessons that are provided by Japanese coaches (so the communication is in Japanese), and make close friends with the families from similar backgrounds to have as much catch-up time for getting used to the Japanese listening-speaking environment.
These learning opportunities are based on their interest and create fun memories. A real-life experience like this becomes a source of the children's motivation to continue learning their heritage language and to foster their identities as Japanese-Aussie with multi-linguistic skills.
However, since 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, these real-life learning opportunities have been heavily restricted and not available for many families. We were forced to stay at home, the only social connection we had with each other during those lockdown times was online, through digital contents. Yukiko's business J-Kids LAB has also undergone a similar transition as she adopted these changes, and through this experience, she has acquired a new set of skills to connect, present to, and support online participants effectively and inclusively.
Now seeing many children not being able to sustain their learning opportunities, Yukiko feels it is her new mission to present them with an alternative opportunity, the Online Japanese Academy, where all learning happens online, with programs that are fun-based and open to the individual interests. The active learning method used in the programs will maximize the children's learning ability in a safe judgment-free environment where every member will be encouraged to participate and express themselves using Japanese as the main communication tool.
Your financial support is crucial for the starting up of the Online Japanese Academy and will be hugely appreciated. Please help us support these children, the new citizens of the global universal world, and the future bridge between the people in Australia-Japan, and many more countries and cultures.
The examples of program activities
- Digital contents production eg. voice collage sing-along
- Live streaming by the academy kid members
- Online workshop with the tutors (member's interest-based) eg. movie-making, youtube training, science, art and craft
- Online family challenge (member's interest-based)
- Online Kana/Kanji/Reading competition
- Onsite event and workshop (subject to the COVID19 restrictions)
- Onsite kids-teach-kids workshop (subject to the COVID19 restrictions)
Goal: $10,000 - to run the Online Japanese Academy for 4 months (June to September 2021).
There is also a Japanese crowdfunding campaign happening at the same time as this fundraising. If the total of 2 campaigns falls short, the period of the class will be shortened. If the total is over our goal, the period will be extended.
[Japanese crowdfunding campaign page]
https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/369287
How the fund will be spent:
- Administration and staff wages $3,000
- Program activities planning and provisions $2,500
- Digital contents production $1,500
- Tutor fees $750
- Logo, web design $250
- Postage, communication, printing cost $1,000
- Fundraising site handling fees $1,000
NOTE:
For the first academy year in 2021, we aim to provide the class to only the children/families who are able to participate in the activities without the language assistance (the class will be held 100% in Japanese, maybe with some visual and audio cues) living in Australia.
We hope to expand our target participants in the near future if the 2021 academy is successful.
Thank you for your understanding.
Organizer and beneficiary
Yumiko Ishigaki
Organizer
Melbourne, VIC
Yukiko Iguchi
Beneficiary