Performing Arts and Learning

Recently, I am helping out Young People's Chorus of New York City in preparation for their tour in Japan which will start in one week. I like helping them not only because I am interested in management of music organization, but I like their music and choristors personaly. As I myself have been in a concert choir which belongs to the concert hall in my hometown, I've learned many things that are important to my life and I think that is true with other member of the chorus and also with the member of YPC. Belonging to a choir helps children learn not only musical skills but also interpersonal skills through taking care of younger members, spending a long time together with other members, and working with many kinds of professionals such as dancers, conductors, pianists, and so on.

What surprised me most at the rehearsal today was how fast they picked up Japanese well. They started a Japanese song last week; when I first heared the piece last week, they were trying hard to literary 'read' the lyrics and music, while singing. However, after having worked with Japanese instructor over the week, now I can understand what they are saying without looking at the music; plus, I can feel the emotion they want to convey through the lyrics. This is because they now understand what they are singing about and trying to tell the message to the audience.

I think the performing arts has a lot to do in learning languages. While I am skeptical about English carriculum in Japanese junior high + high school since many Japanese still can't speak English at all after 6 years of studying, I was luckey enough to study with a memtor who was interested in teaching language through performing arts. He always made students learn English songs and perform it alone in front of other students. Once a year, we had an oppportuniy to perform a play in the theatre in English. I think learnig English through performing arts worked for me because I was able to feel the language as a living experience (vs the language only in the textbook). Singing and acting in English provided me rythmical and emotional sense of the phrase or the words, and I was able to learn it in the way that I can re-express the meaning of the rylics or script meaningfully to others.

Well, timely enough, I need to do the assignment about literacy and performing arts; hope what I feel about my experience at the choir and with the English mentor have something to do with the topic...