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Translingual Practices In A ‘Monolingual’ Society: Discourses, Learners’ Subjectivities And Language Choices, Reiko Kato, Yuri Kumagai
Translingual Practices In A ‘Monolingual’ Society: Discourses, Learners’ Subjectivities And Language Choices, Reiko Kato, Yuri Kumagai
East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications
This study explores how Japanese EFL students engaged in translingual practices during a telecollaborative project that connected two college classrooms in the US and Japan. The project aimed at encouraging the students’ creative uses of languages, promoting an appreciation for their multiple linguistic resources, and nurturing their sense of ownership of languages informed by translingual practices. Contrary to our expectations, students in Japan exhibited great efforts to write in monolingual English and/or Japanese, which prompted us to investigate the reasons behind their language choices. Based on data analyses drawing on poststructural theory of subjectivities, we argue that the students’ language …
Singing Japan’S Heart And Soul: A Discourse On The Black Enka Singer Jero And Race Politics In Japan, Neriko Musha Doerr, Yuri Kumagai
Singing Japan’S Heart And Soul: A Discourse On The Black Enka Singer Jero And Race Politics In Japan, Neriko Musha Doerr, Yuri Kumagai
East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications
This article analyses a discourse around the ascendancy of Jero, an ‘African-American’ male dressed in hip-hop attire singing enka, a genre of music that has been dubbed ‘the heart and soul of Japan.’ Since his debut in Japan in February 2008, Jero has attracted much media attention. This article analyses a prominent discourse, ‘Jero is almost Japanese because he sings enka well.’ While many argue that to challenge stereotypes and racism is to introduce alternative role models, we show that such alternative role models can also reinforce the existing regime of difference of Japanese vs. the Other and perpetuate …