Japanese Immersion Program in Mt. Tabor Middle School

The students at Mt. Tabor study every subject by Japanese. This is called an immersion program, and Portland has special schools for immersion in Spanish and Chinese, as well.  There seems to be evidence that students can learn a second language well, with out falling behind in other subjects.

In the class we visited, students are 8^th grade and they have studied Japanese since they were kindergarten students. There are two teachers, one American and an assistant from Japan. They both spoke only Japanese, and the room was full of Japanese instructions and other signs. They were studying “Kanji”. It was difficult for us but they were studying hard. It was interesting to interact with the American kids speaking Japanese! (by Saori)