The website translation team came together in August 2016 with the goal of making the site more accessible to teachers and management personnel other than ALTs. It is a small team of proficient Japanese-speaking ALTs dedicating several hours a week of their own time to translating site elements and Speakraku lesson plans.
Many site elements and a number of lessons have already been translated, and work is progressing steadily. At the current pace, the team should be finished translating the existing 300+ lesson plans by late 2017, and will continue to translate new lessons as they are added. They will also keep site element translations up-to-date as the site is reorganized and new features are added.
A bilingual JET website could help set Kobe apart from other cities and prefectures; though many have dedicated JET websites full of resources, Kobe would be one of the first with a bilingual website accessible to both ALTs and Japanese-speaking personnel. Kobe already has a reputation of being innovative with its JET program and English education, and by creating a bilingual website, we hope to continue supporting this reputation.
By viewing the website in Japanese, junior high English teachers and elementary school homeroom teachers can browse Speakraku lessons for ideas of games and activities. These lessons can be easily shared with an ALT, who can then view them in English at any of their schools or from home, decreasing miscommunication about lesson content and increasing collaboration in team-teaching.
Alternatively, an ALT can choose lesson plans from the website and share these ideas with their team-teaching partner knowing there is a Japanese version readily available. With ALTs often visiting multiple schools and other teachers busy with packed schedules, in addition to varying levels of English skill, it is often difficult to have effective and timely team lesson planning.
Being able to remotely share ideas through bilingual lesson plans on the website will reduce these difficulties and foster greater collaboration. It may also help Japanese-speaking English teachers, especially those at elementary school, develop ideas for non-ALT English lessons; they can browse easily and look over lesson plans in Japanese, and choose activities they can enjoy with their students.