GTS/JCC 2009 Final Dinner with 30 comrades!

GTS/JCC 2009 final dinner was successfully finished with 30 participants! Many of past study abroad participants from DePaul Univ., Eastern Michigan Univ., Art Institute of Chicago, etc joined as well as a married couple those who met with each other in GTS' Japanese language class some years ago! Their twin boys were born on 12/23/2007 exactly two years after GTS' little Ema. Moreover two students who joined the dinner for the first time from DePaul are planning on participating in COD Summer Japan Study Abroad Program in 2010! Wow! 2010 summer program seems to have many energetic students! Honor Seminar has almost completed and it will come back next fall as a joint project of Japanese Culture Class (Japanese 1100) and Social Problems Class (Sociology 2220)!
JCC/GTS dinner will shift to the last Friday night of the month beginning in January; 1/29/2010 and 2/26/2010!

Already Decemeber!

GTS hopes to see everyone at the GTS/JCC dinner this Friday at Kyoto Sushi at 7pm! Year 2010 is just around the corner and I enjoyed 'ratemyprofesssors.com' as I did a while ago. According to the response, I am an awful teacher letting motivated students down! I am unclear (as I also admit this all the time!). I am just reading a textbook, hahaha. I am NOT teaching Kanji (well, what can I do? teach you how to write? well that is the computer's job in this era!) I am not clear on the grade... (might be right. But I can tell you exactly how many points you got out of how many possible points at any time. You can do the math and you can figure out your grade as 'D' or 'F' but often your grade report says 'C' or 'D.' Why? I don't have to tell you, do I? YOU know how many points you get! Miracle will never happen! Most of other comments might be true! Sorry for those who quit learning Japanese because of me but I know those who enjoy my class outnumbers! Agree? Hope you do!

Happy Thanksgiving!

GTS sincerely greets to you all, "Happy Thanksgiving." We haven't seen significant snow here yet unlike the usual year. I hope every student got warmed up with feast and smile without forgetting Japanese. GTS/JCC dinner will be on Friday of the next week and I'd like to greet to you all, "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year." 1102 morning class is about to be closed! (5 more seats left) though night class has many seats available as of today! To those who are in class now, let's survive! I need students enrolling in 2252 studying Japanese with Doraemon!

Heading to San Diego!

GTS is leaving for San Diego on Thursday to attend the annual conference of ACTFL/NCJLT (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages & National Council of Japanese Language Teachers). Prior to this event 1101 and 2201 students finished their chapter test. The average of 1101's test was 70%, which was a little lower than expected and 2201's test was 86%, which was a little higher than usual! Spring semester has a special 2252 class and the textbook for the course will be [どこでも日本語], very new book with ドラえもん in it and some authors are GTS friends. Hopefully it will be the fun class. Next week will be the thanksgiving and the following week will hold GTS/JCC dinner already! Time really flies!

Small Party yet Fun! Need your Help!

GTS regular dinner last night was rather small with 12 people but I was very glad to see some former students since about 8 months! We will have 2009 last dinner on Friday 12/4/2009! Spring semester registration began and I need help from some of you! Japanese 2252 needs 10 students and so far about 5,6 are secured and a few more needed. 2252 is the last sequential class at COD and we will have very different approach from other classes! We may use film and/or song and/or manga as a learning tool! There is no prerequisite but 2201 completer and 1102 A+ completer are educationally welcomed! 2252 class meets only once a week on Tuesday from 1pm until 3:50pm. Those who are in 2202 as well may begin another class at 6pm so you can create your own super duper Japanese Tuesday!!! How about that? GTS need now the enthusiast for Japanese language!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! GTS became a Pooh with little Rina at home! GTS/JCC dinner will be coming up this Friday. I hope many will show up! Spring Semester registration will begin soon! There will be one 1102 class in the morning (M-Th 11-12) and one at night (MW 6-8).
2202 class time will be changed to T/Th 6-8pm due to the classroom availability. 2252 will meet on Tuesday (2-5). Besides, there will be Spring Break Japan Field Study Trip. Now 1101 under GTS has shrunk and became fairly solid group of enthusiastic students of about 50! I am proud of those who can keep up with me and try their best!

Spring semester registration is coming UP

Spring semester registration is now coming up and I sincerely hope that many of 1101 and 2201 students continue to study next semester at 1102 and 2202. There will be only two 1102 classes (M-Th 11-12, and MW 6-8) and one 2202 class (TTH 6-8). Also students are encouraged to register or apply either Spring Break Japan Trip or/and Summer Study Abroad program. Summer Study Abroad has already several students admitted in so only dozen more slots are left! Yes, our regular JCC/GTS dinner is coming in two weeks on Friday, 11/6/2009.