Contrasting ideologies of foreign language learning in Japan: Hippo Family Club versus “traditional” education

Abstract

This paper is based on ethnographic field work carried out between 2005 and 2009 in Japan with a language learning group called Hippo Family Club. Club member-learners attempt to acquire multiple languages at the same time through pseudo-natural immersion which treats language as play. As a result of this approach, members tend to develop novice-level abilities in a large number of languages.

Adult Education Through a Cosmopolitanism Lens: A Review of the Research Literature

“…They defined cosmopolitanism as a personal perspective that entails ethical and philosophical orientations to include worldviews, dispositions, or identity (Bakkabulindi & Ssempebwa, 2011; Bilecen, 2013; Coryell, Spencer, & Sehin, 2014; Guardado, 2010; McNiff, 2013; Williams, 2013). Characteristics of cosmopolitanism include an individual’s openness (Froese, Jommersbach, & Klautzsch, 2013; Schein, 2008), commitment to multicultural sensitivity (Anderson, 2011; Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett, 2015; Guardado, 2010; Starkey, 2007; Szelényi & Rhoads, 2013), awareness of difference (Bamber, 2015; Sidhu & Dalla’Alba, 2012), development of cultural competence (Nilep, 2009; Ye & Kelly, 2011), adaptability (Coryell et al, 2014; Guardado, 2010), utilization of intellectual devices (Cloete et al, 2015; Sobré, 2009), and employment of appropriate discourse tools (Amadasi & Holliday, 2017) These attributes were suggested as helping individuals interact sensitively and effectively across different cultures, linguistic settings, and political economies. Others posited that cosmopolitanism articulates a sense of belonging in multiple communities (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Khandekar, 2010), while Saito (2017) described cosmopolitanism as imagining a situation where world citizens belong to one community (through the common language of English).…”

“…Within these nuanced understandings of the concept of cosmopolitanism, numerous researchers offered additional variants that helped theoretically frame their studies. For example, Nilep (2009), Schein (2008), and Starkey (2007) all discussed cosmopolitan citizenship, a sense of self that connects with complex, multiple identities (Starkey, 2007) and with individuals of a global community that are “knowledgeable and competent to interact with others across the borders of the nation state” (Nilep, 2009, p. 231). Similarly, Coete et al (2015) and Gu and Schweisfurth (2015) concentrated on the development of transnational cultural citizenship.…”

“…Last, researchers investigated cosmopolitanism within organizations. Within a transnational organization (The Hippo Family Club), Nilep (2009) conducted ethnographic field work over 4 years in several sites in Japan and the United States. He examined cosmopolitan citizenship as a form of personal identity that engages in community language and culture education.…”

“…Scholars who presented findings connected with individuals’ cosmopolitanism enacted in practice suggested that cosmopolitan orientations are played out as social identities and can be used as a coping mechanism for expatriates (Khandekar, 2010), but the meaning of cosmopolitan citizenship may be “reshaped by each member in each setting” (Nilep, 2009, p. 29). Cosmopolitanism was positively related with readiness for the use of information and communication technologies in master’s students in Uganda (Bakkabulindi & Ssempebwa, 2011), and it was found to be a predictor of expatriation willingness in professional education business contexts in Germany and Korea (Froese et al, 2013).…”