Academy Awards

Oscars went to to two Japanese pieces last weekend. One was a short animetion film by Robot, LTD "Tsumiki no ie" and another one was a best foreign film "Okuribito." As a Japanese, I am proud of them and happy for them. Yet, the short-speech of acceptance of the award unfortunately proved to the WORLD that 'Japanese people are not good at speaking English.' Maybe it's ok in Japan but I wish they could prepare a very small cheating paper to even read just like other Oscar recipients and/or could make a very brief speech in Japanese just like Penelope Cruz speaking in Spanish!! GTS will work for the preliminary selection judge tomorrow for the Japanese speech contest scheduled late in March. GTS will also co-lead the workshop for Japanese education for Japanese heritage learners on Saturday and the annual Japanese Teachers' Workshop on Sunday at the consulate general of Japan in Chicago! Next week is already in March and JCC dinner night is coming up!

JET Interview goes on and on

Japanese governmental program for native English-speaking college graduates to go to Japan to assist English education in public schools and to internationalize various public offices in Japan is now conducting the interview this week. As one of the interviewers, I want to suggest every candidate to know more about your own country 'USA' if you are trying to become one! GTS is 'mean' in class and also "mean" during the interview as you can imagine!

COD's official news page introduces GTS on the college website.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Japan imported the idea of 'Valentine's Day' long time ago as a day for woman to be able to confess her feeling for the particular man in 'male-oriented/initiated' traditional society.' Then it became almost the day for woman giving 'chocolate' to every man who is somehow supportive or supposedly-supportive besides the real man in her mind. The survey of this year shows that over 70% of men are thinking of gift giving for this day from man to woman. Change seemed to come! Well, I did conduct the workshop for all Japanese language teachers of the Chicago Public Schools on Friday the 13th! Next week is the week of JET interview at the consulate. Good luck on your interview if you are a candidate! 1102 is wrapping up Chapter 8 and ready for the test. 2202 is as we modified the way of testing having usual rather big quiz again every class and moving into Lesson 3. WCC 102 is finally getting into Chapter 7. Spring break Japan trip is going to be a small-sized (11 people) this time reflecting the worsening economy. Summer Study Abroad is still accepting applications!

JCC (GTS Birthday) Dinner went well!

First Friday of February has just passed. about 15 people showed up at the dinner including a former student who was in Kyoto on the day of 9-11 attack of 2001 during GTS September trip. She also participated in COD summer study abroad program in 2002 and continued to study in Ritsumeikan University (where GTS graduated from) between 2003-2004. She has just begun working at Japanese company despite this bad US economy! Well, GTS families gathered from NIU, DePaul Univ, Eastern Michigan Univ, etc and had fun. Next dinner will be March 6, 2009!

First Chapter Test for 1102 passed!

GTS 1102 students took the Nakama Chapter 7 test. The average score was 80% and went well despite the fact that we didn't have fully enough time to cover as usual! The 2202/2252 testing style has been shifted from previous practice and every student rather has a medium size review quiz every class to accommodate with individual student's life environment. No Exam? Hahha. No such luxury life in the GTS class. First Friday is coming up now and let's celebrate GTS birthday as well as students whose birthday is near.
Remember test/quiz score does NOT and will NOT define or evaluate any test/quiz taker's humanity! It is important to try and work hard and never give up!

GTS nominated for the Board member of ATJ

There are two large professional organizations for the Japanese academic field in the U.S. GTS served as a President of National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT) in 2004-05 while being its board member between 2003-06. This year, GTS has been nominated for a candidate for a board member of Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ). The election is coming up now and the elected board will be announced at the end of March. GTS's opponent is a high school teacher in Hawaii and a good friend of GTS, so she can be an excellent board member of ATJ as well. GTS expresses humble gratitude to the nominating committee of ATJ, and wishes the organization's future prosperity! This is GTS' nomination reference site!