Sunday, October 21, 2012

JAPAN TRIPs in 2013 is ready to get students!

Annual Spring Trip is now accepting students and already one student signed up before actual Spring registration begins!  Hope to have many can go to Japan to enjoy Japan's Spring in beautiful Kyoto with a full bloom of cherry blossoms!  Some students of GTS Japanese language classes expressed their strong interest and I do hope they can actually go with GTS to Japan.

The trip will be 3/22/2013-3/31/2013!   The fee is $2,799 (including everything but lunch and dinner)
There will be a couple of meetings prior to the trip (2/28/2013, 3/14/2013 5:30pm-7:50pm).  Tuition for 3-semester hour for Humanities 1800 ($136x3=$408) is required.

COD Summer Study Abroad Japan program is also accepting application. This 5-week study abroad program conducted in Kyoto, Japan will change the life and perspective of students in many ways.

The trip will be 6/19/2013-7/26/2013!  The fee is $4,444 (including everything but lunch)
There will be the weekend orientation (5/18,19/2013) Tuition for 7-semester hour for Humanities and Japanese ($136x7=$952) is required.

Already a dozen students showed their strong interest so I hope they can make it!

Midtern Verification Passed and Shrank!

Midterm Verification of student progress has passed.  Though we began Japanese 1101 (Elementary I) with about 70 students this semester, which was just about 30% less than usual, only 50 students are now still regularly attending the class.  Another 5 students or so will probably end up withdrawing from the class before the end of the semester.  Japanese 1102 in the Spring semester will be held in the morning (1 class) and the night (1 class), which I barely expect to make it.

Japanese 1102 students will basically survive, which I am quite happy about it, and hopefully they can proceed into Japanese 2201 in the Spring semester (This is the FIRST time attempt to offer 2201 is Spring!).  With a few more 2201 possible students to come back in Spring, I do expect we can form the good class!

Exceptionally eager 15 students in Japanese 2201 this semester keep challenging themselves for higher level of Japanese proficiency and hopefully continue to 2202 in the Spring and I have no doubt that over a dozen students will come back to Japanese 2202, which is excellent!

I am looking forward to see the new statistic soon!

    

Friday, October 19, 2012

iPad, iPhone Application for Japanese Dictionary!

I have just gotten the letter from CJK Institute (Chinese,Japanese,Korean) about the very useful application for iPad and iPhone.  GTS does recommend this!

"Everyone using it agrees that it is a beautifully designed and faithful adaptation of the print
dictionary, while also taking advantage of the iPhone and iPad’s advanced features to make the dictionary even easier to use by learners. Users can search for characters by SKIP, by radical, by
“on” and “kun” readings, as well as by English meaning.

What’s more, unlike the print edition, users can opt to have Japanese readings displayed in either Romanized Japanese or kana.
You and your students should also be interested in another application our institute has developed -- the popular iPhone application “Japanese Sensei”, which allows learners to learn and review
nearly 10,000 of the most important Japanese words. In addition to example sentences for each word, the application features native Japanese audio, as well as quizzes that enable users to not just learn
new words and their usage, but to retain them as well.

More information about each application can be obtained from the following brochures:

http://www.kanji.org/kanji/dictionaries/ikald/KALD_Press_Release_e.pdf

http://www.kanji.org/kanji/dictionaries/jsensei/JSensei_ENG_PRe.pdf

We encourage you to let your students know about these two applications, and how they can be of benefit to their Japanese studies. Also, feel free to announce them on websites, newsletters, and bulletin boards."

Friday, October 12, 2012

JCC/GTS October Monthly dinner is tonight!

As GTS organized the workshop for Japanese Language Teachers in Illinois last weekend, our monthly dinner has been delayed to this week.

It seems that great many new JCC members may show up tonight with some Japanese native students as well!

I am looking forward to meeting all. 

By the way, GTS is now on one of the largest Japanese language newspaper in the US!
 Check it out!

Here!

http://www.usshimbun.com/interview/interview-Satsutani-cod.html

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Already Second week of October!

Time flies.  GTS was busy organizing professional development workshop for K-16 Japanese language teachers of the state of Illinois and successfully completed this Saturday with 35 participants not only our state but neighboring states as well.

It was the largest group in the Illinois in the history of our professional organization, Illinois Association of Teachers of Japanese.

Those Japanese language teachers belong to the follwoing institution.

Burr Elementary School
Clinton Middle School
Murray Language Academy
Andrew Jackson Language Academy
Whitney Young HIgh School
Northside College Preparatory School                     These are in Cicago Public Schools

Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA)
Oak Park River Forest High School
Streamwood High School (U-46)
New Trier High School in Willmette
Elk Grove High School
Lockport Township High School
Dooley Elementary School in Schaumburg
Spectrum Progessive School in Rockford

Oakton Community College
Waubonsee Community College
College of DuPage
Indiana University South Bend
Notre Dame University
Purdue University Calumet
Noth Central College
Northern Illinois University
DePaul University