Have a great winter break!

GTS was supposed to be in Kyoto today with students if the field study program was realized! I am stuck in Chicago but we are planning to drive southeast to hopefully get to Orlando! As soon as I placed some information about the Fall semester's grade on my facebook, tons of comments came! Whether you pass the Japanese class or not, your life is wonderful as usual (this is always my statement). It is rather painful to give grades to anyone but it seems to be the side effect of my job. 1101 in Spring has over 20 students as well as 1102 in Spring, so it is a good sign! Summer Study Abroad interest seems to be also high even though US dollar is very weak! Wish you a Merry Christmas!

Fall semester ended!

Finally the Fall semester ended and some could not survive unfortunately but it is very usual in GTS class. 48 students were in my 1101 roster at the end: 12 As, 3 Bs, 12 Cs, 12 Ds and 2 Ss, oh yes, 8 Failed. For 2201, everyone survived as expected: 5 As, 4 Bs, 2 Cs, 2 Ds and 1 S! Wish you a Merry Christmas! By the way, 10 students showed up at the end of the semester of Waubonsee Community College out of 25 at the beginning! 3 As, 3 Bs, 2Cs, 1 D and 4F!

JCC/GTS dinner was great!

It was rather small dinner this month, yet some new people showed up and went very well. Next dinner will be 1/14/2011. Tomorrow will be the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in usual snowy weather and I hope things will be going well especially for those who are coming to take a test from far away. The test will be conducted at DePaul University in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Spring semester Japanese 1101 has only 6 spots left and it is anticipated to be full in a week! The final is coming up and everyone gets busier. Oh new family member Taro, Shiba-inu, loves to play in the heavy snow!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

GTS family except TARO visited the friend's family house to have a lunch party! Nothing to do with turkey as chicken is tastier and eating turkey is quite foreign to us. Kids are having fun together and parents are talking about the kids' future. hahaha, sounds very non-unusual. After Thanksgiving, school matters will be wrapped up rather quickly. Weak dollar prevent GTS from visiting Japan this winter so I am planning to drive down to possibly FL towards the end of the year 2010. GTS will make a presentation on Jan. 7 as a panelist in San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf where the annual conference of Japanese Studies Association (JSA) is held! The topic? Of course about study abroad and international field studies! Oh, yeah, JCC/GTS dinner will be held on Friday 12/3/2010! Around 7pm! During the Spring semester, the dinner will be held on the SECOND Friday of the month for various reasons. My Japanese tweet is 'satsutan.' Can be fun for Japanese language study. Only 8 seats for 1101 in Spring are left! 1102 and 2202 still have plenty!

Conference in Boston!

GTS has been in Boston since Friday morning and now I am on my way back to Chicago. I met Prof. Eri Banno, the author of GENKI textbook and talk about the revised edition scheduled to be ready in February next year. Also attended the workshop for using textbook called "Doko Demo Nihongo" which is planned to be used for 2251 next fall. I won the raffle ticket to get a big Doraemon nuigurumi which is probably going to one of the daughters. 5th test has been done for 1101 and now everyone began struggling to master Te-form. Spring registration is underway and only 9 spots for 1101 are left (This is the first time to offer 1101 in Spring at COD!) Though Christmas field trip to Japan was canceled, the summer study abroad program seems to be fairly promising since over 10 students in my class currently plan to apply! Spring break field trip will come back in 2012!

New Family member Taro (Shiba-Inu) joined!

Taro (born in 7/1/2010) joined my family since the day of the Halloween and he seems to be the center of all our family activities! 2 daughters of mine are happy to have younger brother and Taro has been still confused about whom he wants to play with. Taro accompanied our trip to Peoria where GTS attended the academic conference of ICTFL (Illinois Council on the Teaching of the Foreign Languages) and he behaved well though he might have experienced stress. Shiba-Inu is the smallest and smartest Japanese breed and I was longing to have it. Well, a dog will not betray us hopefully!

Christmas Japan Trip Canceled!

Oh, sadly I had to cancel the Christmas Field Trip to Japan this year due to the low enrollment as well as weak dollars! Hopefully dollars go up and let study abroad students in summer feel better! (Study Abroad participants seem to be quite a few, so I am not worried about it!). Spring Trip is coming back in the 2012 Spring break! Spring semester registration began and 1101 (which is offered in Spring for the first time!) has already 7 students in it. It is a good start!