Travel Guide for Elderly Tourists from Japan by Emi Murayama

created on Jul 31, 2015 modified on Feb 19, 2019 12:32

description:

Japan is the country with the longest life expectancy. This means that there is a large population with an abundance of leisure time. An increasing number of Japanese senior citizens enjoy their leisure time by traveling overseas. Although neighbor countries like South Korea and Taiwan have recently become popular, Hawaii maintains an unshakable popularity as a travel destination.

 

Information about Hawaii as a travel destination is abundant in Japan. While traditional print and broadcast media continue to regularly feature Hawaii, the internet has become another important source of information about food, souvenirs, and tourists attraction. Despite the abundance of these resources, they are not always easily accessible for many elderly citizens.

 

Japanese of the dankai generation (born between 1947 and 1949) make up a large part of the population, and are now considered as “elderly” (citizens 65 and older.) Given their leisure time and financial resources, it is likely that more and more elderly Japanese will be visiting Hawaii. Therefore, there is a great demand for travel guides catering this demographic.

 

In this project, students will first learn about the rapid growth of the elderly population in Japan. Having gained a better awareness and understanding of this population, students will learn about the needs of elderly Japanese tourists by conducting interviews with them. After analyzing the results of these interviews, each group of students will create a video clip containing information they believe will be particularly useful to elderly Japanese traveling to Hawaii. The video clips will eventually become accessible to elderly Japanese who are interested in vacationing in Hawai‘i through whatever media the students believe will be the most effective for the purpose.

 

Through this project, students will enhance their linguistic as well as socio-cultural knowledge. They will also develop their linguistic skills by carefully designing interview questions and by considering what are the most appropriate expressions to use during the interviews and in their final products (i.e., video clips.)

publisher:
National Foreign Language Resource Center
publish_date:
None
contributors:
copyright:
uri:

Language: Japanese

Subject Area(s): creativity, economy, language and literature, society, travel, communities

Instructional Context

Audience Location:
Hawaii & Japan

Target Audience Description:
Elderly Japanese (vacationing in Hawaii)

Audience Role:
(1) Informants (interviewed by students) & (2) Viewers of final product (i.e., video travel guides)

Product Description:
Student will create video travel guides to Hawaii, which contain information specifically useful to elderly tourists from Japan.

Product Target Culture:
Japanese

Heritage Learners:
mixed

Language Proficiency

ILR Scale Speaking:
2

ILR Scale Reading:
1

ACTFL Scale:
5

ILR Scale Reading:
2

ILR Scale Listening:
2

ILR Scale Speaking:
1

ILR Scale Listening:
1

ACTFL Scale:
3 4

ILR Scale Writing:
1

World Readiness Standards

Communication
Presentational

Cultures
Relating Cultural Practices to Perspectives
Relating Cultural Products to Perspectives

Communities
School and Global

Comparisons
Language comparisons
Cultural comparisons

Connections
Making Connections
Acquiring Information and Diverse Perspectives

Communication
Interpersonal
Interpretive

21st Century Skills

not specified

Project Sequence Overview

Preparing for the Project

1. Learning about Japanese tourists coming to Hawai‘i - Students will gain background knowledge about Japanese tourists coming to Hawai‘i. more detail

2. Learning about the elderly population in Japan - Students will read authentic texts (online) concerning the elderly population in Japan. more detail

3. Learning about the Japanese elderly consumer market - Students will read authentic texts (online) concerning the elderly population in Japan as a promising consumer market. more detail

4. Learning about the needs of elderly Japanese tourists - Students will read authentic texts – online inquiries and responses posted by Japanese speakers – concerning traveling to Hawai‘i with elderly family members. more detail

Launching the Project

1. Preparing for interviews - Students will work in a team of 3 to 4 people and prepare for upcoming interviews with Japanese speakers. This task involves student collaborative work as well as feedback from the instructor. more detail

2. Conducting interviews with the target audience - Students will conduct interviews with elderly Japanese vacationing in Hawai‘i in order to identify their needs and concerns. more detail

Managing the Project

1. Preparing to create a video travel guide - Students will prepare to create a short video travel guide that provides information they believe to be particularly useful for elderly tourists from Japan. more detail

2. Creating a video travel guide - Students will create a short video travel guide that provides information that they believe to be particularly useful for elderly tourists from Japan. more detail

3. Presenting video travel guides to the target audience - Students will present their video travel to elderly Japanese tourists. more detail

Assessment

1. Interview with elderly Japanese tourists - The instructor will assess the students’ performance (i.e., interview with elderly Japanese vacationing in Hawai‘i.) more detail

2. Production of video travel guide - The instructor will assess the video travel guides that students have created. more detail