As Director of the Center for Language Education and a professor in Japanese linguistics, Yuki Johnson exhibits a distinct love for language and the art of teaching languages. In an interview with The News-Letter, she explained her work as director and described her career and successes at Hopkins.
The News-Letter: As Director of the Center for Language Education, what does your role entail?
Yuki Johnson: The Center for Language Education offers eight foreign languages which are often labeled as less commonly taught languages: Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, Russian, American Sign Language (ASL) and Sanskrit.
I oversee all the programs, which means that I oversee the faculty members who teach those languages. These are all language specialists. They are not teaching assistants (TAs); rather they're full-time, professional language faculty. Since we aren’t a department, we don't have a graduate component and therefore we don't have TAs. This distinguishes us from [the Department of] Modern Languages and Literatures, which encompasses subjects such as philosophy and history, and all sorts of things that fall under that umbrella. We focus on language only.
N-L: What has been the most successful or your favorite project or objective that you’ve been a part of?
YJ: Originally, our offices were scattered all over — out in different buildings without any central location for the Center. Usually, departments have a place in Mergenthaler Hall or Gilman Hall, yet we didn't have any central office. In fact, we used to have a language lab which was on the fifth floor of Krieger Hall. It was a big space, but nobody was using it for almost six years.
We realized that the lab was no longer needed also because everybody has their own computer and access to any resource without inconveniencing themselves. Our solution was to change the language lab to individual offices so that everybody in the center had an office. We've become completely united. Everyone knows each other, people talk to each other; we have meetings, parties and overall have the opportunity to get to know each other better.
N-L: How did you find yourself in this director role?
YJ: I started to teach Japanese when I was 18 years old. At that time, I was in training to become a news anchor on a TV station. One day, a government official came and told us that they have a lot of Vietnamese refugees, yet they don't speak Japanese. Essentially, they needed somebody who can teach the language. I decided to be a brave volunteer and raised my hand which ignited my path as a part-time teaching volunteer.
It was so hard. My major at that time — on top of this job — was physics. But I was so intrigued and enticed in teaching my own language. I even found it more challenging than physics itself. Thereafter, I decided to become a linguist so that I could continue to teach language — specifically the two fields of linguistics and pedagogy combined.
I came to the U.S. to get my degree and soon a doctorate degree. When I finished my degree, there was a [director] position available at the University of Michigan (Michigan). Since then, I went on to various places to fix language programs: places like Michigan, Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and finally Hopkins. Here, we’ve gone on to organize and reform the language program since I got here in 2009.
N-L: You teach classes in the Japanese language and grammar. Tell me about your work as a professor.
YJ: I'm a linguist, so I teach grammar, linguistics and higher-level reading and linguistic courses. I teach first-year Japanese too, although just a grammar section.
It’s interesting to teach freshmen, especially because not many professors teach freshmen. Most teach higher-level courses and let the TAs teach first years. I enjoy seeing the difference among freshman classes every year. This year, my students are from all over the world; it's all international students and only two people are native speakers of English.
N-L: What obstacles has the language program faced?
YJ: It is tough to keep attracting students because they can use artificial intelligence (AI) nowadays. And also, there are a lot of people who watch anime, for example, and are already familiar with the culture and the language. But when they come here to get formal instruction from us, it might present a difficulty. The enrollment has dropped drastically: for example, Chinese went from 200 to 100 students. I used to have at least 50 to 60 students in Japanese for first years, but now I have 28.
We had to let some of the programs go; for example, we had to let Swahili and Persian go because of the enrollment issue. But we added Sanskrit this year which has three students. Even though it's small, it’s a much more manageable size. We used to have 100 students in 1st Year Arabic, but now we have 10 students. Managing that size is healthy and allows students to be more connected to each other.
The biggest challenge I have faced is the enrollment issue, but another issue has been finding good language faculty. It is not easy because theoretical linguistics, like Chomskyan linguistics is quite exhausted and changing and don’t produce many linguists who focus on grammar. This is especially true in my field — Japanese linguistics.
N-L: What advice do you have for Hopkins students who want to get started in learning a new language or picking a language back up? What benefits does learning a new language have for young individuals?
YJ: Students should know that the academic level is quite high in terms of language learning at Hopkins. The most important thing that I have to tell them is: don’t miss any classes. If you skip classes, you’re behind, and it takes a long time to catch up. So that's my advice: don’t miss any classes and just stick to the class.
If you find that a language is not serving you, it's not that you cannot do the language. You just may not be compatible with that particular language. For example, I'm not particularly compatible with Arabic at all. I can't learn Arabic, even though I'm a linguist. I can't pronounce any of the words. It's not that I'm dumb; sometimes it’s not compatible. When you find that incompatibility, drop it immediately before you get hurt.
After you've finished taking the class, I would say at least keep communicating in the language with the help of technology. Use AI to develop your writing skills. You can write something and then ask ChatGPT to fix your writing. Keep working at it using any modality available to you.
It’s really good for you to learn a language because it's also direct exposure to the culture. Right now, you're talking to a Japanese person who was raised in Japan — nothing is more authentic than that.
