Setting up a High-Tech Language School?

Bakerybob writes "My wife and I are currently setting up a small Japanese language school, and I am in charge of all of the technical aspects, with a small but not tiny budget. What would Slashdot recommend as technologies we could use to improve the student experience (and hopefully to interest more students in the school!)? We have the easy bases (free Wifi access for students, a stunningly poorly designed homepage, and a few cheap computers lying around for them to play on between classes) covered, but I'm sure there are a lot of better ideas out there. Has anyone used Moogle? What about online lessons via webcam? Give it your best shot, revolutionary thinkers!"

force them into using it

[qwp]

set all of the computers to be their foreign langauge. So that when they go to use a computer it will always require them to use their knowlege.
Computers are only tools, in school we have to learn how to use our mind as a usefull transparent tool By forcing the students to use their foreign language they will understand things better and quicker. ;)

VoIP to speak with live native Japanese speakers

[GGardner]

Maybe you could set up Skype or other VoIP systems and find some real, native Japanese speakers to pratice with.

English school

[Viking Coder]

How about a broadband connection to a computer in Japan where there are people in a similar age-group who are trying to learn English?

Microphones and webcams are pretty cheap. Yahoo Instant Messenger is probably more than adequate for your communication needs.

Have the Japanese-speaking people speak as much English as they can, and have the English-speaking people speak as much Japanese as they can.

Nothing beats talking to a real human.

How's this for a "rest of the story"?

[greenmars]

When I moved to the Big City after graduation, and I started sending my resume to places looking for Japanese language proficiency, I got a call from a lady who worked for a Japanese airline's local office. She asked if she could take me out to lunch. I was suprised and happy. Then she spent the entire hour telling me why I should look for some other kind of job because of how badly the Japanese bosses were going to treat me and how almost no American could take it. Then she paid for the lunch and left. I took her advice and got into the computer biz with no looking back. Still, I do think about all that time and energy I spent learning Japanese, living in Japan for a year, and I wonder if I could have spent it taking classes that would have been more useful for my present life.

Not PDAs, iPods!

[OECD]

Seriously, some schools are using iPods.

Aside from the standard "My pencil is yellow" fare, you cold load them up with popular Japanese songs (and traditional ones.) Mini-immersion, if you will.

The iPods even have some PDA functionality, so you get that, too.

PLUS, for c. $250 per pupil, you can add some serious 'polish' to people's perception of your school. "You get an iPod? To keep?" You'll be amazed at what that does to their willingness to fork over the big dollars! (There's almost certainly a discount for schools, too.)

Heck, set up a 'podcast' exchange with a Japanese english school. (Podcasts are recordings meant to be downloaded for later listening in the iPod.) Have the Japanese students do three minutes of dialog in Japanese, and in exchange the Yanks do three minutes in American.

OR, distribute lessons in podcast format, and charge people for distance-learning! (OR, distribute them for free and charge for the testing!)

Good Luck!

I am in a good Japanese class and...

[Anonymous Coward]

one thing that has really helped is that the teacher has a high quality digital video camera which he uses to tape our oral assignments. Then when we listen to our conversations we pick up on our OWN flaws and consequently learn not to do that. There is no better learning that figuring what you did wrong ON YOUR OWN, because then we have to have done research of some form. One final comment, do not forget about teaching the culture. Bright students will begin to see the massive connection between the language and the culture, and learn connections and patterns that will make whatever follows easier.

Re:Just got back from Japan in July

[maskedbishounen]

Quite true. This is often the fault more knowledgeable fans have with nowaday's commercially translated Japanese media -- the localization of important cultural aspects.

I've been self-studying Japanese for a few years now, and I still learn new cultural tidbits on a near daily basis.

I don't mean that watching anime is the key, mind you; I'm sure others will try to suggest that. But live action and dramas work wonders on both the cultural aspect, and introduce the viewer to the vastly different landscape of Japan. :)