Diversity is all around us, from foreign food to music to lifestyles, religions, skincare, etc. The possibilities of cultures clashing are endless. Living in South Texas means most of our diversity comes from Tex-Mex traditions. However, culture curiosity is quite the attention grabber, this teacher from the west found herself fascinated with eastern culture.
Mrs. Ashley Henderson was born in California, where she spent most of her childhood. She enjoyed playing video games and reading romance novels. As a kid, she loved collecting Pokemon cards and watching her favorite anime, Inuyasha (Japanese). These gateway medias into Japanese culture infatuated her at a young age, and by sixth grade she knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up—a Japanese teacher. Henderson attended California State University Fresno, where she majored in Linguistics and minored in Japanese. As part of her studies, she attended Tokiwa University in Ibaraki, Japan, for six months.
In Japan, she was an English teacher for elementary and middle school students. She stayed for three years, teaching one year in Nagasaki, and two years in Gunma. After returning to the U.S, she decided to move to San Antonio to pursue her dreams of teaching Japanese. Her goal when moving to South Texas was to expose students to more foreign languages in just Spanish.
Henderson said it took about two and a half years to have a good grasp on the language. However, it wasn’t without its share of challenges and tons of learning and effort. When students tell her they read, watched, or explored something in Japanese, she reflects on the same progressive achievements that she made when she was young. Henderson said she feels practically part Japanese because of all the lifestyle changes she made, from her time in Japan.
