Students tutor teacher for Japan trip

A second grade teacher at P.S. 35 in Hollis who is traveling to Japan next month has enlisted the help of her class to prep her for the trip, and the kids could not be more excited, she said.
Fresh Meadows resident Amy Greenhouse, 32, has taught some basic Japanese vocabulary and numbers to her class – ranging from Ohayo-gozaimasu for good morning to polite phrases like onegai-shimasu for please and arigatou for thank you.
&#8220It’s interesting to see how quick they have taken to the language,” Greenhouse said. &#8220The whole school has been very supportive.”
When Greenhouse travels to Japan on Monday, November 13, she’ll have a slew of questions posed by students, teachers and administrators alike to ask about the Japanese education system.
&#8220It’s an opportunity to get an in-depth look and to see how another education system works, see what they do differently” she said of her trip with the Japanese Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program.
Along with 200 other American teachers, Greenhouse will travel through Japan for three weeks, visiting a variety of schools, meeting with education heads, and speaking with teachers and staff. The group will also tour local cultural and industrial sites.
Greenhouse will even have a brief home stay – most likely in Hiroshima, where she will stay for most of the trip.
The Teacher Program, based in Tokyo and funded by the Japanese government, is in its ninth year of operation and brings 600 educators – from all 50 states and the District of Columbia – to Japan during three months of every year, June, October and November. This year, 2,300 teachers applied for the program, and applications for next year’s programs are already being accepted at www.fulbrightmemorialfund.jp.
Greenhouse said she learned of the program through the New York City Teaching Fellows Program newsletter that is put out weekly. Although extensive knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language is not required for acceptance into the program, Greenhouse has spent time in Asia and speaks Chinese. A former developer of language software, Greenhouse became a teacher about five years ago.
&#8220I’ve always been interested in that part of the world,” Greenhouse said, explaining that she had spent a year teaching in a small college outside of Guang Zhou, China after graduating from college. &#8220I think the best way to learn about another country is to live there for a while.”