By Jennifer Trend, Staff Writer
New part-time Japanese teacher Nozomi Mikata proves to be a very upbeat and bubbly person, excited to teach her Japanese students this year at Fountain Valley High School. Her love of teaching is very apparent alongside her love for the subject.
Sachi Katashima, the past Japanese 2 and 4 teacher left after the 2017-2018 school year ended, heading to Las Vegas to teach Japanese there. Mikata heard about the new position while student teaching under David Leech, Japanese teacher at Marina High School (MHS), and was hired in June.
Mikata now teaches one Japanese 1 class and two Japanese 2 classes, also observing Saori Tanaka’s Japanese 1 class.
“I decided that I am going to keep Tanaka Sensei’s style just because [the students are] coming into my class but then they’re returning to her later, and because of that I don’t want to confuse the students that we share. So I’m going to keep the grading scale and the homework [the same as Tanaka’s],” said Mikata.
As for preparing for the upcoming year, Mikata has been familiarizing herself with the textbook, “Adventures in Japanese,” as well as planning the course schedule. Mikata also met up with Katashima a few times over the summer to discuss teaching the classes.
Mikata plans to supervise the next Japanese class on their trip to Japan over the summer, continuing the tradition of the Japanese teachers taking turns each year.
This is Mikata’s first year of teaching in the United States, having only been a student teacher before at MHS and previously helping with paperwork in the engineering department for Japan Airlines. She hopes that she teaches until she retires, and even then wishes to continue teaching as a substitute.
“After graduating from college I went to Japan to teach English for a year and then when I came back and I was working [at Japan Airlines]. I was unsatisfied and so I decided to go back to school. Since I loved teaching in Japan, I wanted to teach Japanese here,” said Mikata.
Although having Japanese parents, Mikata was raised in California and went to California State University, Long Beach where she earned her Bachelor’s degree and teaching credentials, double majoring in Japanese and Creative Writing.
“I’m just getting ready to get to know my students, make sure they feel welcomed into the class and that they’re having fun learning,” said Mikata.
