Location: Map
501 South Washington
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Phone: (970)488-4825
Fax: (970)488-4827
Absence Reporting Line: (970)488-4826

Principal: Deborah Ellis  

Japanese Language and Culture Program

2007 Trip to Japan PDF with pictures

Contact: Tim Beecken, beeckentim@comcast.net

BIRTH
Mukashi, mukashi (That's Japanese for "long, long ago,"-1995, to be specific)-Dunn Elementary School was awarded a grant to offer a foreign language as an extracurricular course at the school. Japanese was selected and a teacher was found. And thus was born the Dunn Japanese Language and Culture program.
Over 80 people-children and parents alike-signed up for the initial three sections, which were held before school (8 AM-ouch!) and after. When grant funds ran dry, students were charged a nominal tuition. Many of the merely curious slipped from the ranks of students. However, a hard core of dedicated students has kept the Japanese program alive all these years.
TUITION & DONATIONS
Since students began to pay tuition, we've had classes of as few as three students and rowdy (?) ones of up to 16 members. Every year, caring people in Japan have donated funds to support the Dunn Japanese program, allowing us to keep tuition costs low and to offer scholarships to deserving children. Since 1997, over $4700 has been donated to our program by benefactors in Japan!
THE CLASSES
Classes are open to all students at Dunn, kindergarten through sixth grade-and their parents. Currently we have seven students in an advanced class, in which they are learning to read Japanese hiragana, as well as longer phrases and sentences. Nine students in our beginner's class are learning basic phrases, numbers, colors, names of animals and family members and so on.
The classes emphasize Japanese life and culture as well as the language. Children learn to clean floors Japanese style (They actually enjoy it!), practice taking off shoes to enter a Japanese house, play various Japanese games and fiddle around with Japanese toys, and learn Japanese songs. Nearly every Japanese holiday and special day is studied, with students actually taking part in many of the customs and rituals related to such special days. The lucky children are also occasionally treated to Japanese snacks. (First phrase mastered by nearly every student: "More, please"!)
THE HIGHLIGHT-THE PLAY!
The highlight of the year comes each spring when the combined classes perform a Japanese folk tale for the entire school. The students dress up in genuine Japanese costumes and perform the play in Japanese. Japanese and English narration is provided for those in the audience who are not fluent in Japanese (pretty much everybody). Our 2004 performance will be on April 23 (Friday) at 1:30 in the Dunn auditorium. The community is welcome to attend.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Other activities include an occasional field trip to a Japanese restaurant and Japanese grocery store in Denver, and parties at the instructor's home, where students take part in treasure hunts and eat-and sometimes make!-various Japanese foods.
AN EVEN BIGGER HIGHLIGHT-THE TRIP!
The instructor's personal highlight (and of many others) came in June, 2003 when he took five current and two former Dunn Japanese class students, along with a handful of teachers and parents (a total of 16 members), on a 2 and ½ week trip to Japan. The group spent two days visiting their Japanese sister school, where they were treated like royalty and participated in glorious cultural exchange with the Japanese students and teachers. They also stayed in Japanese homes, and did plenty of sightseeing. (Castles, shrines, a ninja house, hot spring baths, Japanese-style inns, riding on the Shinkansen ("bullet train"), volcanic ruins, and so much more!) They ate every possible kind of Japanese snack, and did enough shopping to single-groupedly restore the Japanese economy. There is unanimous agreement that such trips to Japan must be continued!
And there in a nutshell (a coconut shell, perhaps-this is fairly long) is the history of the Dunn Elementary School Japanese Language and Culture Program. New students are always welcome!