Study Abroad Orienntation is just around the cornor!

14 students (4 women and 10 men) will go to Kyoto, Japan this summer!  This is the 16th year since the first summer study abroad program was conducted. 

Over 300 students went to Japan with GTS by now including short winter/spring programs.

No major accidents/incidents for these 15 years, which is great and GTS feels owing a lot of his students for this success.

This safe tradition will continue as long as GTS is leading the program and GTS will let every student maximize his or her Japan experience.

Another happy thing is that there will be about 15 students taking summer Japanese 1101 program at COD main campus taught by my friend, Date-sensei, and hopefully some will coontinue their study in fall!!!!!!!

GTS Japanese program at COD is growing and expanding and GTS is moving forward with students support even though some students fail GTS class yet challenge it again.

All the grades for Japanese language courses are now determined!

Most students are having fun in class but it does not mean they can pass the class.

The grade distribution for the Spring 2014 is:

Japanese 2202 (Fourth semester):

A:2  B:1   C:6  D:2

Japanese 2201 (Third semester)

A:1  B:1

Japanese 1102 (Second semester)

A:6   B:0   C:3   D:6   F:2

Japanese 1101 (First semester)

A:5   B:9   C:7   D:6   F:6

I am glad to see students in the second year, somehow, passed!

Fall Semester Registration is underway!

There will be a new format introduced to Japanese 1101 for the first time!

1101 morning classes used to be held daily 4 days a week (Mon-Thu). 
This particular daily format will be gone thiis upcoming Fall semester.

ALL Japanese 1101 classes will be 2days a week format, which, I know, is quite a challenge.

So Japanese language classes in Fall are:

Japanese 1101 (First semester)
Mon and Wed    10am-11:50am, and 5:00pm-6:50pm
Tue and Thu     10am-11:50am, and 7:00pm-8:50pm

Japanese 1102 (Second semester)
Mon and Wed     1pm-2:50pm

Japanese 2201 (Third semester)
Mon and Wed    7pm-8:50pm

Besides these language classes, GTS will offer Japanese Culture and Civilization class
for the first time in Fall daytime.

Japanese 1100
Tuesday  12:00noon-2:50pm

Hope many can come.

Oh, yes, Spring Break Japan Field Trip 2015 and Summer Study Abroad Japan 2015 are, of course coming up!

Almost the end of the Academic year!

May is just around the corner and GTS is getting busier for concluding the semester as well as preparing the Study Abroad Orientation and monitoring the enrollment for upcoming Fall semester!

This semester has been the great semester as one interesting study group was created within the Japanese 1101 class and they are collaboratively making an effort to overcome hardships!

1101 this semester began with 50 students and about a half of them seems to pass the class.
Hopefully over a dozen students continue to study at Japanese 1102 in Fall, which is likely.

2 students of 2201 will pass the class with the decent grade and about 10 students will pass 2202, which is the 4th semester.

Though 1102 night class has only 5,6 students, I am hoping that with some dozen students in the morning class 2201 class in Fall will be a good class!

Playing with Deer in Nara on the last full day

Final day of the program was to visit to Nara to greet the Giant Buddha statue in the World Largest Wooden Structure.

We walk from the Great Buddha Hall through the April Hall, Tamukeyama Hachimangu Shrine, Mt. Wakakusayama, to Kasuga Grand Shrine where we could observe many families bringing their new born babies to be blessed!

After having lunch, on the way back to the Hotel, we stopped at the Kyoto Station where we can see the entire Kyoto City from the rooftop Garden called Happy Terrace.

The trip was almost concluded with the best timing and best weather!

Now we are heading back to Chicago, through Osaka and Tokyo with All Nippon Airways!

Whiskey, Ramen and Castle!

Under a bit cold and windy weather, we visited Suntory Yamazaki Distillery which began operating in 1923.  Recently Suntory bought Makers Mark in Kentucky.  We learned a lot about Japanese Whiskey. 

From the Distillery, we were headed to the Instant Ramen Museum where everyone had a chance to create his or her own cup noodles!

Under the full bloom of Cherry Blossoms, our group reached to the magnificent Osaka Castle to experience being in the warring states period of Japan.

Superb weather for Cherry Blossoms!

Under the ideal weather, we visited Daikakuji temple where everyone tried writing Buddhist scripture, Han'nnya Shingyo using brush.

Cherry Blossoms in its beautiful garden are in full bloom and we encountered some sort of movie shooting.

From the mountain garden of Tenryuji temple, we saw clearly the easy part of Japan.