West Bloomfield High School’s Japanese club is one of the school’s most active and largest clubs with a diverse set of members. The Japanese club explores Japanese language as well as actively immersing students in Japanese culture. Japanese club has watched Japanese movies, cooked traditional Japanese food, and also researched the language to gain knowledge about everything Japan has to offer. The club has two seniors, Rachel Hirsch, the club’s president, and Al Brenner, the vice president of the club. Spectrum got a chance to sit down with Rachel and discuss her personal experience as a senior in the club as well as some recent developments concerning the club’s standing in our school. When asked what her personal favorite experience of Japanese club was, she said, “I love it when we watch Japanese movies. We also make really amazing food.” She was also asked what sorts of Japanese culture the group explored over the course of the year, “We studied and celebrated some Japanese traditions and holidays. In addition to the movies we watch, we  play Japanese games. If there’s any underclassmen that don’t understand some of the language part of the class then sometimes we’ll tutor them or help them out.” Hirsch also offered her opinion on how Japanese club has affected her outside of high school, “Japanese is a really cool and important language and it’s really sad that they are trying to phase it out because Japan is one of the top 5 economies in the world and is the 2nd largest contributor to the U.S economy. It’s really important because they’re plenty of jobs available that require Japanese especially here in Michigan.” Hirsch recently coordinated a general meeting of those that were interested in protesting the phasing out of Japanese in the High School which had plenty of turnout of concerned parents and students.

The Japanese club here at West Bloomfield High is an extremely fun and well rounded club and will hopefully remain in our school for years to come.