Elin
is an enthusiastic Japanese language teacher, who has been teaching Japanese
in New Zealand for 11 years. She has taught many secondary school students
in Palmerston North as well as training and supporting a number of Japanese
language teacher trainees as their associate teacher. However, her teaching career started not as a Japanese language teacher but as a teacher of English, Afrikaans and Careers in South Africa in 1973. After 16 years of teaching in South Africa and Italy, Elin came to New Zealand, then encountered Japanese here in 1993, while teaching Social Studies and Transition at Palmerston North Girls’ High School.
Since Elin was already a multi-linguist, speaking Afrikaans, Italian and French along with English, she enjoyed studying Japanese very much, initially at night classes at IPC (International Pacific College) and then completing a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Japanese) at Massey University extramurally while teaching. Elin says Japanese is a very logical language, compared to other languages she has learned.
After teaching Japanese to juniors at Palmerston North Girls’ High for a few years, in 1996 Elin started teaching Japanese up to Year 13, concurrrently teaching French to juniors, at St Peter’s College, Palmerston North, as H.O.D. Languages and Dean of International Students. Elin was awarded a Japan Foundation Scholarship in 1997 to study Japanese intensively for three months in Tokyo.
During the eight years of teaching at St Peter’s College, Elin took students on a three-week School Study Trip to Japan three times, almost every second year, in which all participants had eye-opening and unforgettable experiences.
In 2004 Elin moved to Awatapu College, Palmerston North, where she is now Head of Department, Japanese. Her days there are extremely busy, teaching all year level Japanese classes and frequently organising Japanese related LEOC (Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom) for her students, such as a Wellington Trip for a Japanese jazz concert, having Japanese student teachers from Japan, having meals at Japanese restaurants as Elin herself is a great shinnichika (親日家) and Japanese food- lover. Elin is keen to carry on School Study Trips to Japan at Awatapu College and is organising the next Japan Trip for April 2006. Elin is in charge of the Student Council and some other school activities in addition to being a marker and panel leader for NCEA Level 2.
photo above: Awatapu College Students with Mrs King (Elin)
(profiled by Kaori Fumoto, 2005)