A magnet to Japanese language learners in Orange County

 

Orange Coast Gakuen

21141 Strathmoor Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92646

Saturdays, 8:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

www.kyodosystem.org

 

Cultural News, August 2008

 

 

The Orange Coast Gakuen (School) branch of the Japanese Language School Unified System in Huntington Beach, Orange County. (Cultural News Photo)

 

 

The Haroutunians encourages their children to learn Japanese language: from left, Susan, Misa, Yukiko and Kenji (Cultural News Photo)

 

    They come from not only nearby Fountain Valley but also from communities at the southern end of the Orange County border such as Lake Forest and Laguna Niguel.  Over 100 children from kindergarten to 12th grade get together on Saturday mornings to learn the Japanese language in the rented classrooms of a private high school in Huntington Beach in Orange County.

 

    The Orange Coast Gakuen (School) branch of the Japanese Language School Unified System aka Kyodo System was started in Orange County in 1975 to give Japanese language training to children of Japanese parents. Unlike other Kyodo System schools, the Orange Coast Gakuen does not have its own property but has been renting classrooms from churches and private schools for the last three decades. Currently, the Orange County Japanese language school leases rooms at Brethren Christian Junior and Senior High School in Huntington Beach.

 

    As the years passed, Japanese language learners in the school become more diversified, and the enrollment transitioned from children of Japanese parents to children of Japanese and American parents and other non-Japanese ethnicities.

 

   The Haroutunians case is the most interesting. Kenji Haroutunian was born to an Armenian father and a second-generation Japanese-American mother.  As a child, Kenji did not speak Japanese in the home. Kenji is now married to a Caucasian American, Susan, and while living in Los Angeles, they had sent their three children, Misa, Phil Kenichi, and Yukiko to El Marino Language School in Culver City.  Kenji and Susan do not speak Japanese at all but they encouraged their children to learn the language in El Marino’s Japanese language immersion program.  In July 2007, though, they moved to Laguna Niguel in Orange County.

 

     Upon their move, Kenji discovered Orange Coast Gakuen, enabling them to continue Japanese language lessons for their children.  Misa, now 12-years-old, just finished the seventh grade, and Yukiko, now 6, finished the first grade at Orange Coast Gakuen. Phil started to learn Japanese in the school last year but could not continue.

 

     Kenji Haroutunian, an athletic and sporting goods promoter, says, “Our lives are affected by other worlds such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Learning a foreign language helps to understand other countries and the world.” He believes strongly that the Japanese language is essential for their children.

 

    Rich Schmidt and his Japanese wife Yoshiko were married in Fukuyama, Hiroshima prefecture in Japan where Rich taught English and translated Japanese to English at a company. They moved to Fountain Valley in Orange County seven years ago, and their two children Randy Keiji, 10-years-old and Justin Seiya, 7-years-old, attend Orange Coast Gakuen, only a 10-minute  drive away.

 

     In the Schmidt household, the family members speak in Japanese and the children can write and read Japanese. Rich Schmidt, general manager of egg producer Hidden Villa Ranch in Fullerton, says, “Our children can read Hiragana (Japanese phonetic syllable). We want our kids to keep Japanese so they can communicate with their grandparents and cousins in Japan and for their future.”

 

    Until the academic year of 2007-2008, students at Orange Coast Gakuen were assigned to classrooms by their age, from kindergarten to 12th grade with 11 teachers. But a parent-teacher conference took place in February, and it was decided to restructure class assignments to accommodate the diversified  language backgrounds and goals of the students learning the Japanese language.

 

    According to Head Teacher Hiromi Kishimizu of Orange Coast Gakuen, with the new academic year starting July 19, classrooms will be separated into “Japanese as Heritage Language” focusing on reading and writing, and “Japanese as Foreign Language” emphasizing  conversation.  Kishimizu says, “We are looking for the best classroom setting for the children.”

 

    For more information about Orange Coast Gakuen, call the Kyodo System Main Office at (213) 383-4706 or email office@kyodosystem.org.