Talk:Thomas Lockley

CV

The article as currently written has:

Lockley first came to Japan in 2000 as a participant of the JET Programme and stayed at Tottori City for 2 years, where he worked as an Assistant Language Teacher at an elementary school. He then became a full-time lecturer at the Nihon University College of Law, before becoming an associate professor at the college in 2019. [...]

This makes it sound like he transitioned immediately from the JET Programme to becoming a lecturer at Nihon University in 2002. However, I found a paper of his from 2011 ("Pre-university experience of ICT and Self-Access Learning in Japan") where his author bio describes him this way:

Thomas Lockley lectures in international communication at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba Japan. He has worked in Japanese education for five years and also taught French, German and Japanese for four years in UK secondary and primary schools. His research and teaching interests include secondary education, motivation and self-perception.

Assuming that the experience listed is after 2000, and if his statement that he "worked in Japanese education for five years" includes the JET Programme (most often a two-year contract), that suggests he started at Kanda University around 2009. If it does not include the JET Programme, he would have started at Kanda University around 2011.

Whichever the case, this bio from 2011 indicates that he was not yet at Nihon University. Can we find any more specifics on when he was hired there? And can anyone shed more light on his time between 2002 and Nihon University? ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:04, 24 July 2024 (UTC)

I found this which states College of Law, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan. It says it was received 2013, accepted 2014. This from 2012 still has him listed as Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. And this from 2013 lists Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, Japan. So from the looks of his papers, at least, from 2011-2012 he was at Kanda, and 2013 onward he was at Nihon University. Brocade River Poems 02:50, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

It isn't necessarily that binary, it is possible that Lockley was working as an adjunct or other non-tenure track position at Nihon while also having a position at Kanda. Scrutinizing individual papers won't really resolve this question, you'd need a copy of his CV or something like that. MrOllie (talk) 03:10, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

True, I was mostly just working from the papers because the question about the timeline originated from the papers as well. Brocade River Poems 03:31, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

As written in the section below, Lockley only teaches English, not history.

Let me give you a clear example.

“Everyone knows about the American Civil War, right? It is an essential event when thinking about the formation of the United States of America today, and you must have learned about it in school.

We have prepared a Chinese text about the Civil War. Read this and re-learn the Civil War while learning Chinese."

Lockley teaches Japanese history in English at Nihon University.

It's the exact same thing. 153.248.52.69 (talk) 01:49, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

sorry. 153.248.52.69 (talk) 01:51, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

As mentioned in the section below, Rockley visited Japan in 2009 and is a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies.

He became an assistant professor at Nihon University in 2013 and became his current associate professor in 2019.

https://japanese-with-naoto.com/2024/07/22/dreamy-history-assassin-2-thomas-lockleys-cinderella-complex/ 153.248.52.69 (talk) 01:52, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Academic activity areas

Just providing these mostly for reference.

Harper Collins[1]:

Thomas Lockley is Associate Professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, where he teaches courses about the international and multicultural history of Japan and East Asia. He co-authored African Samurai, the first book in the world about Yasuke, the African warrior who served the Japanese warlord Nobunaga, in 2019. While Visiting Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, he did much of the research behind his new book, A Gentleman from Japan: The Untold Story of an Incredible Journey from Asia to Queen Elizabeth’s Court. He and his family live in Chiba, Japan.

Otha Publishing[2]:

日本大学法学部専任講師。研究分野は言語学習。担当教科は歴史で、特に国際的視野に立った日本史を扱う。同時に日本やアジアの歴史に関する多くの研究も行なっており、弥助についての論文も発表している。本書『信長と弥助』は初の著作にあたる。イギリス出身、日本在住。

Thomas Lockley is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Nihon University. His research interests include language learning. His subject area is history, especially Japanese history from an international perspective. He has also done much research on Japanese and Asian history

Japan University[3]

研究分野 人文・社会, 史学一般
Research area: humanities, society, and study of history (general)

Lockley has considerable teaching and research activity in history beyond his other interest of foreign language study. 15 out of his 24 thesis papers are on history (and beyond that a few are on general humanities), and all his published books fall under history research. He currently teaches history classes to college students.

Just providing this for reference as it may be WP:UNDUE to describe him as a language teacher without also mentioning his primary areas of activity. Symphony Regalia (talk) 02:22, 28 July 2024 (UTC)

If you are concerned about the top WP:short description, it is meant to be as brief as possible. Since his Nihon University profile writes his primary courses as "Foreign Language Courses", it is what it is. Including all of his field of study would be way too long. -- Sameboat - 同舟 (talk · contri.) 03:05, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

For clarification, I am fine with the current state of the article. This is in response to a proposed edit by Eirikr (as explained below). Symphony Regalia (talk) 20:20, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

@Symphony Regalia, you recently reverted my edits for a second time, so I bring this here for discussion.

• Formatting for the source

The wikicode for the source currently has {{Sfn|Lockley|2017|loc=Translator afternote}}. The loc parameter is intended for the location in the text, such as a page number or chapter title. In this case, the text is from chapter or section entitled 役者あとがき in Japanese. Since this is a title, we should use Title Case: "Translator Afternote". Rendering this in sentence case instead as "Translator afternote" is potentially confusing to readers.

• Timing

As written after your revert, the second paragraph in the #Profile section includes this:

Lockley first came to Japan in 2000 as a participant of the JET Programme and stayed at Tottori City for 2 years, where he worked as an Assistant Language Teacher at an elementary school. He then became a full-time lecturer at the Nihon University College of Law [...]

This makes it sound like Lockley joined the Nihon University College of Law immediately after finishing his JET contract in 2002. As I described in the #CV section on this Talk page, that is not correct, as he spent some time as a lecturer at Kanda University before taking the job at Nihon University. This is sourced to Lockley's own biography, as he wrote in his own academic paper.

• Role at Nihon University

As written after your revert, the second paragraph of the #Profile section omits any mention of Lockley's field. This seems like a strange omission.

The same "Translator Afternote" in Lockley's Japanese-language book 「信長と弥助」 states on page 261:

現在は、日本大学法学部の専任講師であり、研究分野は言語学習。

---

Currently [written in December 2016], [Lockley] is a full-time lecturer at Nihon University's College of Law, and his field of research is language learning.

In the 2024 course listing PDF on Nihon University's own website (https://www.law.nihon-u.ac.jp/international/doc/foreign_language.pdf), Lockley himself describes his course as:

My classes are content-based English classes with a focus on the international history and culture of Japan, containing themes and stories of people from history to help you improve your English and learn content at the same time.

Note that he himself describes these as "English classes", as befits the phrase used in both the "Translator Afternote" and in the bio on Ohta Publishing's website:

研究分野は言語学習。

---

[Lockley's] field of research is language learning.

Note that this does not say "research interests include language learning", but instead it states that his "field of research is language learning".

Considering that Lockley's own mini-biographies, in multiple locations, contain this detail, we should include a mention of this in our biography page here.

I hope this explanation makes sense to you. If you still object to my earlier edit to make the changes described above, could you please explain why? ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 21:57, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

I have noticed some attempts to paint Lockley as "just a language teacher" (not referring to you), however according to essentially all sources concerning his areas of academic activity, and what he was published, this is not true. His primary area is demonstrably history and there is considerable research there.

I believe your proposed edit would imply that he primarily does language learning research when he doesn't, and I also believe it would be undue because the following paragraph already explains his research focuses in what I believe is a balanced manner.

Lockley's field of study is languages, particularly in Content and Language Integrated Learning. Lockley also does research in Japanese and Asian history. Lockley teaches history and English at school, with him teaching Japanese history from an International perspective.

No issues with any formatting fixes. Symphony Regalia (talk) 20:19, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

As written in the section below, Lockley only teaches English, not history.

Let me give you a clear example.

“Everyone knows about the American Civil War, right? It is an essential event when thinking about the formation of the United States of America today, and you must have learned about it in school.

We have prepared a Chinese text about the Civil War. Read this and re-learn the Civil War while learning Chinese."

Lockley teaches Japanese history in English at Nihon University.

It's the exact same thing. 153.248.52.69 (talk) 01:50, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Providing information from the Japanese version

138.64.67.37 (talk) 07:08, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

We will provide some combinations of information based on information in the Japanese version.

This is an information journal published by Nihon University.

There is an article about Lockley in this magazine.

"Residing in Japan since 2009. In 2013, served as assistant professor and full-time lecturer at Nihon University Faculty of Law, then current position since April 2019."。

https://www.law.nihon-u.ac.jp/publication/pr/pdf/Journal-vol.28_Web.pdf

And one more thing.

Kanda University of Foreign Studies's information magazine.

Lockley is one of the people introduced here who was hired in April 2009.

In other words, he was hired by Kanda University of International Studies as soon as he came to Japan.

https://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/kuis/cms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2009_33.pdf

"Rockley teaches history and English at the school and teaches Japanese history from an international perspective."

He is introduced like this.

If you look at the list of faculty at Nihon University, you can see the classes they are responsible for.

https://www.law.nihon-u.ac.jp/teacher/general/

English A/B/C/D/E/F, Basics of Independent Creativity, Seminar

He doesn't teach history classes. He just uses history as material for his English classes.

I think that if I check the content of the Japanese version on a translation site, I can make the article even more complete.

I think the person editing the Japanese version isn't very good at English, so that's why they don't come here.

The Japanese version has undergone a large amount of additions over the course of a month, and has been praised for its excellent articles.

Please check the Japanese version and adopt the good parts.

https://w.wiki/Ag7s 138.64.67.37 (talk) 07:19, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Honestly, translating articles was my main area, but given the content in the japanese article, it's just going to lead to disruption and arguments around yasuke from those who decided to politicize a nation's history that frankly make it not worth it to bother. DarmaniLink (talk) 12:12, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

The current state of the Japanese version of the article is a major BLP violation and the editors there should honestly be ashamed of themselves. Silverseren^C 14:07, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

I don't really care about the Yasuke debacle (and lean skeptical of Lockley; sketchy contributions) but you're right. The sourcing in the jawiki article is awful; self-published or low-quality sources whilst attacking him. It's grossly inappropriate. Honestly jawiki... Serious problems. seefooddiet (talk) 21:29, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

It's understandable they would have a hard time being charitable, given his career of colonizing their history with weird fanfiction while presenting himself to the west as an authority. Meanwhile the EN version reads like he is an uncontroversial social scientist in good standing in his field. Neither represent a proper encyclopedia entry. Desktopview (talk) 04:18, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

But when there's a BLP at stake, it's better to err cautious than not. The jawiki's activities are clearly worse. seefooddiet (talk) 04:27, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Considering Lockley was widely praised in Japan for his publications and frequently interviewed and quoted in their media for his works, clearly there wasn't any belief of him "colonizing their history". That's just been a recent claim by certain types who don't want to acknowledge Japan's negative history. Which is shown by the fact that seemingly the biggest complaint going on in Japan currently with his work is his statement about Japan owning slaves and being involved in the African slave trade at the time (which they did, it is a known historical fact that they don't want to admit.) Silverseren^C 04:35, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

This caught my eye, and thought one should not mention something like this in an instant way because it misleads people's understanding.

"about Japan owning slaves and being involved in the African slave trade at the time (which they did, it is a known historical fact that they don't want to admit.)"

what slaves are you referring to?

Maybe any country had some kind of slaves or servants, I do know of Japan terminology such as "下人" will be the one, and western researcher had included "奉公人" as slaves which is somewhat falsely interpreted to me but what can I say.

Japan had basically no access to slave trade of African people.

In mid to late 16th century, for the first time in Japan, Japanese people saw black people. Portuguese missonaries carried black servants along, and the missonary's letter shows how Japanese people were very surprised and excited to see the black people for their exotic appearance.

In the late 16th century already, Hideyoshi banned Christianity because Portuguese merchants were taking people of Japan away as slaves and selling them abroad, this banning decreased the number of foreigners in Japan.

By the early 17th century, Japan went national isolation "鎖国" under Ieyasu which continued untill the mid 19th century. of course during this isolation time, only very limited places had access to foreign.

So really, there is no space for slave trading of Africans in Japanese history.

only minor exeptions may be found such as in "the Diary of Richard Cocks" in which includes depiction of some black man serving for Japanese lord during the early 17th century in those special area which mentioned above, but this really is an exeption.

in short I believe,

Japan did not touch on the slave trading of Black people

Portuguese merchants took Japanese people away and sold as slaves abroad, and sure, some Japanese locals were involved in collecting and selling of personnel for such trade.

Japan had hierarchy system that was interpreted as slavery by western researchers, regarding this, here is the good reference "Slavery in Medieval Japan" by Thomas Nelson

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066328

I guess I will pause it here. 2001:F74:8C00:2200:C2C9:0:0:1002 (talk) 12:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

While I won't comment about African slaves, Japan took tens of thousands of Korean slaves. Slavery in Japan, Slavery in Korea#Japanese and Portuguese slave trade. It is not ambiguous to call them "slaves"; they were kidnapped and sold off. seefooddiet (talk) 15:52, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Please do not "I won't comment about African slaves",

I would like to hear about your opinion about it for it is the only matter to discuss in this Thomas Lockely page. otherwise, the topic does not belong here. 2001:F74:8C00:2200:C2C9:0:0:1002 (talk) 16:12, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Your and silverseren's comments were in part about non-African slaves as well. And likewise with your comment; this discussion is mostly off topic. seefooddiet (talk) 16:24, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

"Your and silverseren's comments were in part about non-African slaves as well." No, this is only your assumption, no one mentioned slavery of Japan above unless it has been debated somewhere in this section.

and writing like this:

"his statement (Mr.Lockely's statement) about Japan owning slaves and being involved in the African slave trade at the time (which they did, it is a known historical fact that they don't want to admit.)"

would seem that Japan was definitely involved in the African slave trade, and I only say one should not write something like this in such careless way. If this does not mean Japan's involvement in the African slave trading for some reason, it is just wrongly written. 2001:F74:8C00:2200:C2C9:0:0:1002 (talk) 03:29, 1 November 2024 (UTC)