Award-winning Japanese instructor Naoko Nakadate teaches with "vigor, innovation and dedication"
When Naoko Nakadate joined the University of Oregon faculty as a Japanese language instructor in 1993, Bill Clinton had just been sworn in as the 42nd president, and Dave Frohnmayer was still one year away from being named president of the UO.
Nakadate was reminded that the length of her tenure has spanned more than three decades after she was awarded a Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy during spring term.
“I can’t believe it’s been more than 30 years,” she said. “There have been a lot of ups and downs, moments we had to face big challenges. The things that make me keep going are all these dialogues with students and friendly, supportive colleagues.”
The Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy recognizes senior career instructional or tenure track faculty who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and expertise in a particular area of teaching. Nakadate was cited for helping to shape “the Japanese language program into a leading presence in the field, due to her wise leadership and curricular guidance.” She has taught at every level of Japanese “always with vigor, innovation, and dedication.”
Her colleagues describe Nakadate as a devoted, widely respected, and exemplary teacher.
During her time at the UO, “she has taken a leadership role in establishing our Japanese language program as the premier program in Oregon that competes with more highly ranked, selective, and better funded programs on the West Coast,” said Yugen Wang, department head of East Asian Languages and Literature.
“In casual conversations and in formal review settings, colleagues have expressed their universal admiration of her stellar record of teaching, her significant contributions to student learning in the Japanese language program, her record of generous mentorship and on-boarding of junior instructors, and her impact as a role model for all faculty across the sectors.”
Her students also offered words of praise:
- “Wonderful and supportive professor, I am very happy to be learning from her,” one student wrote.
- “Nakadate Sensei has helped re-awaken my passion for learning Japanese that I once had and worried I wouldn’t get back,” said another.
Nakadate grew up in Kofu City in Yamanashi prefecture and graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies with a bachelor’s degree in foreign studies. She arrived at the University of Oregon in the 1990s as a graduate student, earning a master’s degree in international studies – now called global studies – focusing her research on Vietnam and international development. During that time she got a job as a graduate teaching fellow, doing Japanese language instruction.
After completing her degree, she looked for work in Japan, but the job market was bad, so she took a job as North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where she suffered a bit of culture shock.
“It felt like I was in another foreign country,” she said. “People spoke quite differently, and the culture was quite different. I felt like I was studying English all over again.”
She enjoyed teaching there but wanted to be closer to Japan, so after a year she took a job at the University of Oregon, launching her decades-spanning tenure.
“I’ve been fortunate to work in a very supportive community that involves the students and the teaching faculty,” she said. “We always talk about how our students are doing, and what’s new in the pedagogy in the field. We are so into our profession. I think that is one of the key things that made me keep going.”
— By Tim Christie, Office of the Provost Communications