The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 114

NORTH JERSEY 'SOs NJ-6 THE SUNDAY RECORD both worlds udeiits best of English teachers David and Marissa Troxell with some of their students at Maebashi Higashi Commercial High School in Japan. Duo teaches students to speak their language "It's a breeze teaching kids who the Japanese Ministry of Education 11 months ago. Ten years ago, the freedom and independence fostered by American schools sometimes led to Japanese children being teased or shunned by classmates in Japan. The Ministry of Education has tried to assist these children by offering Japanese education abroad. Negoya said he thinks children who attend American school during the week and Japanese school on Saturdays have the best of both worlds.

'They have a chance to meet other people for the first time. They are exposed to different ideas while maintaining competence in the Japanese language and mathematics on Saturdays." Japanese Weekend School, called hoshuko, began in New York City at the Nippon Club in 1962. It was run by parent volunteers. As the Japanese population shifted to New Jersey, Westchester, and Long Island, the schools went with them. There are four schools in North Jersey: School in Clifton, in Hackensack, for kindergarten-sixth grade in Fort Lee, and for Grades 7-12.

"Parents no longer volunteer as teachers," says Keiko Horigome of Palisades Park, "but we pay tuition to support the schools. Hoshuko is 99 percent supported by parents' tuition of $1,000 every four months." Horigome's son, Kenji, 17, the weekend schools has been decreasing. "Japan is in a recession now. Many families are being sent back to Japan and they are not being replaced," says Horigome, who will return to Japan in May. There are fewer children.

In addition, the job market is not as secure in Japan as it once was and many families are opting for juku and forgoing hoshuko altogether, seeking more certainty in getting their children into the best schools in Japan. This is why the Ministry of Education has sent Negoya here. Until 1993, hoshuko in New York and New Jersey were administered by the Japanese Education Institute of New York, from headquarters on Long Island. Negoya opened a local office in Englewood Cliffs. The hope is that by closer contact between parents and education administrators, the weekend school will find better ways to serve the community's needs.

An important item on Negoya's agenda is to increase interaction between Japanese and Americans. Next Sunday, hoshuko will host a Japanese culture festival, called bunka sai, at Lewis F. Cole Middle School on Stillwell Avenue in Fort Lee. Each class has prepared a drama, quiz, or dance. Mothers are preparing a variety of Japanese food.

There also will be a bazaar. The festival is open to the public from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For information, call the Japanese Weekend School of New Jersey at 816-8497. A New Jersey couple teach English in Japan graduates from School today.

He and his sister, Junko, 15, have attended hoshuko for the six years the family has lived in Palisades Park. Both children have combined Japanese school with a full American school life. Junko is on the track team and Kenji plays baseball, basketball, and football He was named MVP by the Palisades Park High School football team. Such extracurricular activities are difficult for Japanese students because many sporting events are on Saturdays. Horigome spends her Saturdays picking up her kids from hoshuko and getting them to their games, and her children have stuck it out until today's graduation.

Many families abandon hoshuko by high school, as reflected by Kenji's senior class of only 10 graduates. There are 82 elementary school graduates and 23 in middle school. Some parents aren't satisfied with hoshuko, so they send their children to juku, or cram schools, as well. Students spend three or four hours in cram classes after the regular school day two or three days a week. I remember when Hinoki, the first juku in Fort Lee, opened about 10 years ago.

A friend, Keiko Matsumoto, told me: "I don't want to send my son, Hiro, to juku. I don't want to put so much pressure on him." Six months later she changed her mind. "All his friends go to juku. He has no one to play with after school." Juku programs aim to cram students' minds with information in specific subjects that will help them pass entrance examinations to middle school, high school, and university in Japan. Recently, Horigome and Negoya both attest, enrollment at "Living in America gives Japanese children a rare and precjous experience," says Tsuheo Negoya.

"Here, children challenge the teacher; individuality is encouraged. This is gqod." Negoya is principal of the Japanese Weekend School of New Jersey, and his statement represents a changing attitude in Japan toward kikoku shijo, or foreign-educated Japanese. "Ten years -PAT NEIGHBORS FROM JAPAN ago these children were not accepted when they returned to Japan," says who was appointed by Are You Looking For A Career You Can Count On? Yqu can join one of America's fastest-growing professions with just four months of daytime study or nine mclpths of evening study at Fairleigh Dickinson University's Paralegal Studies Program. Program approved by the American I Bar Association I' Choose either General Practice or Litigation Management I Offered on Teaneck-Hackensack 7 and Florham-Madison Campuses Bachelor's degree or employer sponsorship required Employment Assistance Stafford Student Loans Summer Classes Start in June. Call for a free catalog.

201-593-8990 Offefedjn cooperation with th National Center for Paralegal Training FPU FAIWLZK3H DICKINSON ONIVEKSITT This article is part of The Record's exchange program with The Jomo Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. Marissa Troxell, a subject of the article, is the sister of Neil Reisner, The Record's database editor. By THE JOMO SHIMBUN On a recent day at the Maebashi Higashi Commercial High School in Ogo-machi, Seta-gun, Marissa and David Troxell were talking to students about food. "What kinds of food do you like?" they ask. "What kinds do you hate?" "Do you pay attention to calories?" This is the Troxells' method of teaching English to Japanese students.

Their close teamwork makes it easy for these popular teachers to communicate with their students. Their quick tempo and style resemble those of Japanese comedians. "Even if we can't understand exactly what they are saying, we can usually get the meaning from their expressions and gestures," one student said. have this much energy," said Da- vid, who, with his wife, has lived in the Shimokoide-machi section of Maebashi for a year and a halk "We decided to settle down in Japan for a few years in order to learn a bit about the Japanese fcuVI ture and to teach English." The two transplanted Califor-nians teach classes in a variety of schools and also offer private language instruction. "When we talk to the kids during lunchtime, it's a little rough at first but they usually respond to us in English.

The point is not perfection in the language as much as the practice of it," David said. The Troxells were surprised by the formality of Japanese stu-" dents, especially by the custom of greeting each teacher by standing and bowing, known as kiritsu, iei. "In America, nobody seems to pay any attention when the teacher enters the classroom," David said. "I don't know which system is better, but at least from the" teacher's standpoint, the respect we get in Japan is pretty nice." riEEQ A l.VYEH? KATDYN A. 0ILCE1T (201) UNCONTESTED DIVORCE $79500 55 State St.

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