S U M M E R Tidings. From the former president

Transcription

1 S U M M E R the Tidings Contents From president 1 AFTJ Board members PRESIDENT Mako Nozu VICE PRESIDENT Etsuko Woodbury SECRETARY Yasuo Uotate DIRECTOR Mieko Avello Naoko Komura TREASURER Yukari Nakamura ************************** WEB MASTER Mako Nozu NEWSLETTER EDITOR Naoko Komura From the former president 年度を振り返りフロリダ日本語教師会 (AFTJ) は様々なイベントを行ってまいりました 8 月にはマイアミでの Articulation Day そしてマイアミ総領事館公邸での川原総領事との意見交換会 10 月には St. Augustine での Florida Foreign Language Association 主催の学会への参加がありましたまた 12 月にマイアミで Japan Immersion Day を主催そして Japanese speech & skit contest を 3 月にマイアミで 4 月にタンパで主催しましたどちらのイベントも昨年以上の学生の参加があり大盛況となりましたさて 2011 年から 2 年間会長をさせて頂いておりましたが無事この任務を終える事ができましたこれも一重に皆様のご協力とサポートのお陰ですこの場をお借りし御礼申し上げます今年度から南フロリダ大学の野津万琴会長率いるメンバーでこれからも AFTJ を盛り上げて行く所存ですので今後ともご協力サポートの程よろしくお願い致します AFTJ 前会長小村直子 During the school year, the Association of Florida Teachers of Japanese (AFTJ) held many events. We had Articulation Day and meetings to exchange ideas with Consul General Kawahara in August. Also, we participated in the Florida Foreign Languages Association meetings in October. Additionally, we sponsored Japan Immersion Day in Miami in December and the Speech and Skit Contests in Miami in March and in Tampa in April. More students participated in both events this year and all were successful. By the way, my two years term as AFTJ president is coming to a close. I have been able serve in this position due to your cooperation and support. I thank you all very much. From now on, Mako Nozu from the University of South Florida will lead AFTJ as president and help our association flourish. I hope that our new board members can benefit from the same wonderful support I have had! Naoko Komura, Former President

2 K-12 Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Miami School Report Miami Palmetto Senior High School had a wonderful year. To start, we won second place in Homecoming. In addition, we won first place in the Panther Prowl skit contest, and second place in the hallway decoration competition. This marks the fifth consecutive year that we have placed in these contests. Three exchange students from Kagoshima visited us for three days in November. My students served as host brothers and sisters, and made wonderful friends. We also participated in the Asian Culture Festival by performing the soran dance with a shodo performance. In March, our Japanese Honor Society donated senbazuru (thousand paper cranes) to Miami Children s Hospital, along with giving an awesome origami workshop. On May 11, students participated in the Kakehashi Project, spending 10 fantastic days in Tokyo and Kagoshima. One of our students, Ida Caproon, was chosen as a participant for the JET Memorial Fund Exchange. I feel so fortunate to have so many dedicated students. I look forward to having another exciting year at Miami Palmetto Senior HS. - Mieko Avello Mainland High School, Daytona Beach At Mainland HS, we had two Japanese 1 classes, two Japanese 2 classes and one Japanese 3 class this year. Some students participated in various activities and competitions such as the Volusia County Foreign Language Festival. Eleven students entered various projects including Japanese teaching materials, videos and crafts related to Japanese culture, with many receiving first place blue ribbons. During the festival, Mainland students led a bon-dance circle which was open to audience participation. Also, MHS Japanese club won $100 in the food booth decoration contest. We had a very dedicated Japanese club this year. Among the usual activities, students were able to experience using soroban (abacus) for the first time, entertaining themselves with even simple addition. In addition, 20 students took part in the EPCOT field trip in April. My students have been encouraged to apply for any and all available exchange scholarships. Recently, one student succeeded in receiving a partial scholarship towards the YFU Japan summer program. - Etsuko Woodbury

3 Western High School, Davie Time flies so fast! It is hard to believe but the school year is already over. We had a busy year at Western High School as usual. We hosted 28 students from Fukushima through Kizuna prject in March. We organized a school tour, welcoming ceremony, BBQ picnic, and many fun activities for those Japanese students. Also, many students received awards and scholarships this year. One of my students won 2nd place in the AATJ's Nengajo Contest. She received an Amazon gift card! Two of my students received "Best of Japanese" awards at the district's world language academic competition. Also, two of my students received scholarships to go to Japan this summer through Youth For Understanding. One received Japan-America Friendship Scholars award, and the other received a $10,000 scholarship to study Japanese by Mazda. Young At Art and Morikami Park have been great partners! We had an event together with YAA in December, and enjoyed our field trip to Morikami this year again. Our Japanese Club donated $1000 to Morikami! We have been donating to Morikami the past 5 years. Hope everyone has a restful and safe summer! - Satoko Fisher University Florida International University, Miami Frist several students have earned our first "Minor in Japanese Language and Literature" by the end of Spring, As for events, we had Japan Immersion Day and Speech Contest at Florida International University which both were successful. After the Speech Contest, a few winners were invited to the Consulate's residence for a delicious lunch. This occasion made the students more motivated to learn Japanese language and culture (Maybe a pic.?) We also had several Japanese movie screenings organized by FIU Japan Club. We had 14 students participate in Kyoto Study Abroad Program led by Professor Naoko Komura and they completed it successfully. Mark your calendar for 12/16/2013. In partnership with the Asian Studies program, the Modern Languages Department, the Japanese Consulate and with funding from The Japan Foundation (Center for Global Partnership -Education grant), we will be hosting a Japanese cultural event entitled Viva Japon! Taiko and Etc. in Miami. Our plan is to host five performances over the course of the day: an Ikebana exhibition, a Martial Arts exhibition, a Soran Bushi dance exhibition, a Flamenco exhibition, and a Koto exhibition--all set to live Taiko drum music. We hope to revive Japanese community in Miami and elsewhere to celebrate Japanese art and culture in this rare occasion. - Asuka Mashav

4 University of Florida, Gainesville This year, particularly, the achievement of our students was phenomenal. We would especially like to congratulate sixteen students graduated with Japanese major degree in May Their career path varies from JET ALT & CIR programs, graduate school, a private English school in Japan, engineering company to a translation company in the States. We wish them the very best for their future endeavor! This year, nine students participated in the speech/skit contest held at USF and one of them received the grand champion for her speech. Again, we are very thankful to the Japanese teachers at USF: Nozu sensei and Ohtani sensei & J club members for letting us join such a wonderful event for our students! The Spring Festival, Haru Matsuri, held at UF in April was very successful. Many people from the community visited the campus. We are very proud that UF J-Club demonstrated amazing dance performances and introduced various cultural aspects of Japan to the community. We are looking forward to their dance performance again at ACTFL annual conference held in Orlando in November 2013! For information about our Japanese program, please visit: Explore our major - Japanese: -Yukari Nakamura-Deacon University of Miami, Miami We have had an active school year at the University of Miami, with Mari Williams sensei joining in the Japanese program. We had more participants in the speech contest this year and two of them won the 1st place and the second place in the level 2 category. We also had the second Hurricon (anime convention) and Mari sensei and I presented a lecture on the Japanese festivals. Mari sensei created an amazing Power Point material on the subject, which fascinated all the audiences. As to summer courses, I established a new summer study abroad program in Miyazaki, which currently is going on up until June 20. Students have been exploring the southern Kyushu while taking two courses, JPN 201 (intermediate Japanese) and JPN210 (an introduction to Japanese culture). - Eiko Williams

5 University of South Florida, Tampa We completed another productive and successful academic year at the University of South Florida. We offered Japanese I VI and Japanese Calligraphy classes with great enrollments. In fall, we hosted the 5 th Japanese Social Picnic at USF Riverfront Park with a lot of students participated. In spring, we held the 7 th Mid-Florida Speech and Skit Contest on USF campus. We also participated in a variety of cultural events on campus as well as in the local community to promote Japanese culture in the Tampa Bay area. During this academic year, 13 students were inducted into the Japanese National Honor Society. We are proud of them! Moreover, three USF graduates got accepted into the 2013 JET Program and are expected to teach English at public schools in Japan. Finally, the biggest yet saddest news for the USF Japanese program is that Ohtani-sensei decided to retire at the end of spring We would like to thank him for his hard work and accomplishments in the last 10 years. Thanks to him, the program has grown so much and become successful. USF J-Club hosted a big farewell party for Ohtani-sensei on the last day of the semester and a lot of students celebrated and congratulated his retirement. We will miss him very much! 大谷先生おつかれさまでした! - Mako Nozu New board members in We had an election at our annual meeting at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Deerfield Beach on May 4 th, Here are the new board members of AFTJ. President: Vice president: Secretary: Treasurer: Director: Mako Nozu, University of South Florida Etsuko Woodbury, Mainland High School Yasuo Uotate, University of Florida Yukari Nakamura-Deacon, University of Florida Mieko Avello, Miami Palmetto Senior High School Naoko Komura, Florida International University 2 年間どうぞよろしくお願い致します

6 Japan Immersion Day in Miami Japan Immersion Day in Miami was held at Florida International University on December 10, A total of 195 students (125 high school students and 70 university students) from Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Terra Environmental Research Institute, Florida International University and the University of Miami participated in this event. We offered the nine workshops including a kimono try-on, sumie, and introduction to anime. All students took two workshops and enjoyed learning new things about Japanese culture. After the workshop, we ate delicious obento from Sushi Joe in Doral. During lunch, our regular performers from Miami Palmetto Senior High School performed yosakoi soran dance and shodo performance. Thanks to 39 volunteers from schools and local communities, all participants enjoyed this event and one of our biggest events was a success. - Naoko Komura Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USF USF s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI-USF) is a 1,300 member strong organization of older adults who join together to learn, teach, grow, and develop. In her retirement, our former member Sachi Ann Welsh has taught a dozen OLLI classes since 2007 focusing on Japan and Japanese culture. Her recent classes were The Eras called Meiji and Showa" and 27 Centuries of Tenno Dynasty". She ll be teaching another 8-week class titled Enjoying the Traditional Japanese Arts this fall, and is planning on What Is Samurai, Anyway? for the 2014 spring semester. Each class attracts 15 to 20 participants, and several of them are taking her offerings many times. Thus, to those repeaters, the greeting now has grown from ohayo gozaimasu to kyoo mo ogenki de iidesu ne. Spring Immersion Day in Tampa Over 100 students attended the 5th Middle School Immersion Day in Tampa on March 26, Thirteen community volunteers taught 9 different subjects in 21 breakout sessions, among which each student could select 4 classes to attend. Our deepest appreciation goes to Mieko Avello and Takako Matsui Berlin (a former AFTJ member), who drove hundreds of miles from Miami to help out in this event. Avello sensei s sumie class was new this year and such a great hit, that many students begged us to put them in her class again. We thank them sincerely for coming to the rescue, because the Immersion couldn t have been as successful without their help. - Sachi Ann Welsh