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.

1101 has begun shrinking!

Upon completing Lesson 3 test, it seems that 1101 has just begun shrinking. Those mysterious seats will now become official empty seats after the mid-term verification next week. The average score of this 3rd test was 104 out of 130 (80%) which is a lot higher than last two previous tests. Hopefully less withdrawal towards the end of semester. The global classroom project between COD and Hiroshima Jogakuin University in our honor seminar (Japanese 1100 & Sociology 2200) began today and every student met Japanese students through web cam screen!

Zoo after Workshop!

On Saturday, GTS as a president of Illinois Association of Teachers of Japanese (IATJ) organized its Annual Professional Development Workshop at Elk Grove High School attended by over 25 Japanese language teachers of K-16 levels. The topic was "how to teach Japanese without creating students with stereotype such as "Japanese likes cleanliness (which is not true when looking at each household kitchen!)." Exhausted? ちょっと。So on Sunday GTS went to Racine Zoo in Wisconsin!!! It was a bit chilly but had great time with animals being very close! Yes, I love Zoos and Aquariums. TV channel? Sure, Animal Planet Channel! Chapter test is coming up for 1101 and misterious seats are growing!