Mr. Norman Masuda

2002 - Japanese Language Category

Instructional Supervisor of World Languages
Japanese instructor
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto, CA

Norman Masuda has been teaching for 32 years and is the Instructional Supervisor of World Languages and a Japanese instructor at Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA. A Ford Foundation fellow, he studied Chinese language and literature in Taiwan and did research in Kyoto, Japan on a Fulbright-Hays fellowship.

A graduate of UCLA in Oriental Languages, he received an MA in Chinese literature with a Japanese minor at Stanford University. He is credentialed to teach Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and English. A founder and past president of the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers and the California Association of Japanese Language Teachers, Norman has served on the California Foreign Language Project’s Advisory Board, the Test Committee of the Japanese SAT II, the ACTFL Japanese Standards Committee, Foreign Language Advisory Committee to the College Board, and consultant to the California Department of Education for Less Commonly Taught Languages.

He has presented at local, state and national conferences and given workshops on methodology, assessment, and technology in world language teaching. In addition, he has been involved with Okinawan performing arts and culture for over 25 years. He has studied Uta-Sanshin under Harry Seisho Nakasone (Head of the Nakasone Seifukai, Honolulu, HI), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and classical Okinawan dance under Mitsuko Toguchi (Ryusei Honryu Yanagi no Kai, Hawaii Chapter, Toguchi Mitsuko Ryubu Kenkyusho). He is certified to teach Okinawan Sanshin and has studied Okinawan dance since 1978.

As Executive Director of the Kariyushi Kai, an association dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Okinawan classical dance and music, he has led workshops, classes, lecture/demonstrations and organized concerts since 1984.