Anchorage Daily News

Junko Murofushi always wanted to be a teacher, but growing up near Tokyo, getting the necessary training seemed impossibly competitive. She had trouble believing her dream would come true.

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Now the 25-year-old is likely to get a job in Japan by teaching in a place she never thought she'd visit, let alone live: Anchorage.

Murofushi is one of eight intern teachers Sand Lake Elementary contracted to teach in the Japanese immersion program this year. As demand for the district's oldest immersion course has grown, the school has brought in unpaid teachers to supplement its paid staff. It's a relationship of convenience for both that highlights the demands of an intensive language immersion program and also the growth of such programs across the city.

"It's made a huge difference," said Sachiko Kono, a second-grade teacher at the school since 1990.

Kono, who partners with Murofushi, has seen the course's popularity slowly grow -- now she always has classes maxed out at 25 to 30 students.

WORLD IN A CLASSROOM

Immersion programs have spread rapidly in the United States, from just a couple dozen in the mid-1980s to hundreds now, according to the Washington-based Center for Applied Linguistics.

Anchorage's growth mirrors the national trend. What started with the Japanese school 20 years ago with 50 students now is 1,780 students in 11 programs in four languages -- Japanese, Spanish, German and Russian. And one elementary school, Scenic Park, is beginning Chinese classes next year, which could grow into a full-scale immersion program, said Janice Gullickson, the school district's world languages coordinator.

Elementary students in the programs spend half their day speaking in the foreign language, learning the same content they would normally learn in English, including math and science. In middle and high school, the time spent speaking in the language diminishes but the classes become harder.

At Sand Lake last fall, 98 students applied for 50 spots. Preference is given to children who live in the neighborhood or who have siblings in the course, but otherwise it's a lottery, as are nearly all the district's alternative schools.

PLACES HOTLY DESIRED

Joelle Swalling has three children in Japanese immersion programs and says she feels lucky her kids got in the schools when they did. Swalling, who is also the PTA president at Sand Lake, said she knows of some parents who hire tutors to teach their kids Japanese, hoping that if they didn't get in at the kindergarten level, they can get in at first grade. The school stops taking new kids after that, unless he or she is a native speaker.

The schooling is so important to Swalling that she drives 60 miles a day shuttling her three boys. First, at 7 a.m. she leaves her Turnagain home for Dimond High in South Anchorage, then at 8:30 a.m. drives her younger boys to Sand Lake. Next year, she will add Mears Middle School into the mix.

"It's worth it," she said. "It opens up more opportunities for them."

Some parents enroll their children because they have spent time in Japan or want their kids exposed to the culture. Some do it because they like the more disciplined style of Japanese teachers. Others, Swalling said, do it for status. "Some parents just like saying their kid is in the program."

When the children finish elementary school, they usually have enough language skill to hold a basic conversation in the second language. If they continue through high school, they usually will graduate fluent.

JUMP-STARTING MINDS

Many parents with kids in the program don't speak a second language, said principal Patrick Garrity. The reason they enroll their kids is because learning a second language challenges their brains and makes them think in new and different ways.

Virginia Collier, a linguistics professor at George Mason University who has studied bilingual education, said research shows schooling through two languages expands cognitive functions.

It makes learning another language later in life a lot easier.

It can even raise a child's IQ, she said.

Collier said it doesn't matter what language kids start learning at an early age, whether it's a difficult language like Japanese or an easier language to learn like Spanish: The benefits are the same.

The Sand Lake immersion school started in the '80s when studies began showing the benefits of learning in a second language. At the time, Japan Airlines flew to Anchorage and there was more trade between the United States and Japan, and parents in the neighborhood requested Japanese over French or Spanish or other more commonly taught languages.

Now, the Sand Lake school is divided in half between the immersion program and the regular neighborhood school. Principal Garrity said the school, which has 650 students, has to distribute its resources equally, which means it has no extra money for immersion. That's where the interns can make the difference, he said.

PARENTS PUT UP INTERNS

Parents have jumped onboard the idea, which is in its second year, he said. Families volunteer to host the interns for months at a time.

Kono, who is originally from Japan, said she can devote more time to individual students by having an intern, Murofushi, in the classroom.

"Many times, the children don't even realize she speaks English because she is only speaking Japanese to them," Kono said.

In Christy Mahugh's first-grade class this week, children reviewed vocabulary, learned the water cycle, counted in multiples of 25 and sang a song that sounded a lot like "Do Re Mi" in Japanese. English was not spoken except for the occasional whisper between 7-year-olds.

Intern Masae Hariuchi sat with students and spoke with them one-on-one, while Mahugh did the same. A wiggly blond boy, Grayson Davey, sidled up to Hariuchi and took his place in a miniature chair to review vocabulary. At first he faltered, squirming in his chair, looking around the room for answers. Then, suddenly, something clicked in his mind and he blurted out the words, and Grayson walked away with a satisfied smile.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.

Immersion at a glance

Growth of language immersion programs in Anchorage public schools:

1988 50 students

1995 720

2000 1,115

2003 1,350

2007 1,780

2007-08 Anchorage public school language immersion programs:

Spanish Students

Chugiak Elementary 275

Mirror Lake Middle 100

Chugiak High 80

Government Hill Elementary 340

Romig Middle 50

West High 65

Japanese

Sand Lake Elementary 360

Mears Middle 75

Dimond High 100

Russian

Turnagain Elementary 190

German

Rilke Schule 170