The Princeton Community Japanese Language School (PCJLS; プリンストン日本語学校 ''Purinsuton Nihongo Gakkō'') is a Japanese weekend school in the

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

area. It holds weekend Japanese classes for Japanese citizen children abroad to the standard of the

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...

(MEXT), and it also has classes for people with Japanese as a second language. Courses are held at Bierenbaum Fisher Hall (formerly Memorial Hall) at

Rider University Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, United States. It consists of three academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which includes Westminster Choir Coll ...

in Lawrence Township, Mercer County. The school offices are in Princeton, except on Sundays, when the offices are at Rider University.Home
" Princeton Community Japanese Language School. Retrieved on February 14, 2015. "プリンストン日本語学校オフィス 14 Moore Street, Princeton, NJ 08542" and "Sunday Office Rider University, Memorial Hall, Rm301" This is one of the Japanese weekend school systems in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

.Kano, p
106
"Princeton Community Japanese Language School (PCJLS) is a weekend school ..t is the leading Japanese school in the greater New York region ..

History

Five Japanese researchers at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

founded the PCJLS in 1980. It was originally at that institution but moved to Rider in 1996. In 1987 its weekend courses for children covered Kindergarten through the 7th grade.
ClippingDetail view 1Detail view 2
and
Detail view 3
from

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

Curriculum

The school's

Japanese Ministry of Education The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001, the former ...

(MEXT)-compliant classes are part of its Division 1. The principal of Division 1 is funded by MEXT.Kano, p
107
In addition, the school offers Japanese heritage language courses, Japanese as a foreign language courses,Kano, p
108
and courses for adults as part of Division 2, which is oriented to children attending university in the United States and other persons from English-dominant households. The school's teachers developed their own kanji textbooks for use in these courses.Kano, p
109
Placement into a particular division involves consultations in which the student, the parents, and/or PCJLS teachers are involved. In 1987 the school also had Japanese language courses for adults who work in businesses.

Student body

Many PCJLS students are U.S. permanent residents with at least some Japanese ancestral origin, including multilingual students with one or more parents who speak a language not English and/or not Japanese, and/or bilingual students living in English-dominant households. These students often attend heritage classes and/or Japanese as a second language courses. In 1987 students came from the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Some of the students came from Fort Lee and some came from

South Jersey South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...

. In 187 the school had around 20-25 adult students and 100 child students.

Teaching staff

Parents, as of 2012, make up 70% of the teachers at PCJLS.

References

* Kano, Naomi (加納なおみ ''Kanō Naomi''). "Japanese Community Schools: New Pedagogy for a Changing Population" (Chapter 6). In: García, Ofelia, Zeena Zakharia, and Bahar Otcu (editors). ''Bilingual Community Education and Multilingualism: Beyond Heritage Languages in a Global City'' (Volume 89 of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism). Multilingual Matters, 2012. , 9781847698001. START: p
99

External links

*
Princeton Community Japanese Language School
(Archive)
海外の週末日本語学校（プリンストン日本語学校の取り組み）

Archive
. Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education (MHB) Research Association (母語・継承語・バイリンガル教育（MHB）研究会). {{coord, 40.351894, -74.654946, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Japanese-American culture in New Jersey Schools in Princeton, New Jersey Schools in Mercer County, New Jersey Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey