“We’re planning a rotation through our officers and we take turns as small groups and go to the Japanese classroom to support the Japanese teacher,” Japanese Club co-president and junior Ginga Sato said. “Basically [we are] helping students who came in to get help on their Japanese.”

The tutoring sessions began last Thursday’s tutorial on Sept. 1 and are to be held every tutorial on Mondays and Thursdays. Tentatively, there will not be tutoring sessions during Homecoming week and the week before finals.

“We are willing to help out the people who [are] taking Japanese, and the people who [are] interested in Japanese… Come to B201, we will help you out.” Japanese Club co-president and senior Hidetoshi Yoshimura said.

Japanese Club president Ginga Sato talks to Japanese teacher Keiko Howard about tutoring sessions on Sept. 1, 2016. There were about two dozen Japanese students who showed up for tutoring.

The Japanese Club’s new weekly activities have reinforced the club’s purpose and importance in the school community, giving students who are interested in learning about the Japanese culture and language more opportunities. Student tutors are then able to pass their prior knowledge and experiences on to the students who less experienced in the language.

“My love for Japanese has probably grown over the past year ever since I went to Japan. I know I’m not really good at speaking Japanese, but I really love their culture and everything about it,” junior and Japanese tutor Christian Wu said. “Japanese club had helped me out a lot because I felt like I was doing nothing with my life, and overall after having that experience in Japan, I feel like I want others to have the same experience through [the] Japanese Club.”