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BREEZE #47

SEPTEMBER, 2011: BREEZE ISSUE #47
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESEGREETING FROM THE DIRECTOR

September usually signifies the end of summer and the start of a brand new school year and this year isno different with many school districts starting early here in Southern California. To prepare for theupcoming school year, the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, completed three major programs designed tosupport Japanese language education in the United States. They are the Summer Institute in Chicago, thefirst half of the Leadership Workshop in Los Angeles, and the first inaugural J-LEAP orientation that sent 15
teaching assistants from Japan to various schools around the United States. We are also gearing up forthe upcoming Japanese-language proficiency test in December and the registration period will start andend this month. With many new activities scheduled for the rest of the fiscal year, we hope you willcontinue to support us.
Misako Ito, Director

2011 JLPT REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
The registration period for the 2011 JLPT started on September 1st, 2011 and will last through September
30th, 2011. If you are a learner interested in taking the test, please make sure to send in your application
before the deadline. If you are a Japanese-language teacher, please also make sure your students send intheir applications by the deadline. Application materials and instructions can be downloaded from ourwebsite below.
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FULL-TIME/ PART-TIME LECTURER IN JAPANESE-LANGUAGE
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles (JFLA) will open a new Japanese-language course in January 2012.
With our many years of experience and achievements in Japanese Language Education, we will offer
courses based on "JF Standards," which our Headquarters in Japan have developed during the past fewyears. We invite applicants to apply for our Full-time/ Part-time Japanese-language Lecturer Position in Los
Angeles and work with us to promote Japanese in Socal.

2011 J-LEAP ORIENTATIONJ-LEAP (Japanese Language Education Assistants Program) has just begun! On August, 7th, 2011, 15
Japanese teaching assistants arrived in Los Angeles to attend a one week workshop at The JapanFoundation Los Angeles, to prepare them to teach in American schools all across the United States.
During the workshop, they learned about the American education system, National Standards, advocacy,and other useful information about teaching in the United States. Towards the end of the workshop, they
were introduced to their supervisors at their assigned schools. On the last day of the workshop, Director
Takehiko Wajima from the Japan Information and Cultural Center, Consulate-General of Japan in Los
Angeles, gave a speech to encourage the participants at their "send-off " dinner. Ms. Naoko Nogamoto,who is a participant assigned to a school in Kentucky, expressed her ambitions stating "I believe thatbeing a Japanese Language teacher is like being a diplomat at a grass-roots level. As a young teachingassistant, we are enthusiastic in creating opportunities for mutual understanding among the American andJapanese youth." Starting this fall, 15 Japanese TAs will be teaching Japanese-language at the K-12 levels
in 13 states across the country until the end of July, 2013. We will be providing reports from the TAs every
month in our online newsletter Breeze, starting in October, so please be sure to follow their progress.

PERFORMING ARTS JAPAN 2012-2013 CALL FOR GRANT APPLICATIONSPAJ aims to increase access to Japanese performing arts and further an appreciation of Japanese culturein the United States and Canada. Applicants can be US and Canadian nonprofit organizations only. Projectcommencement period needs to be between July 1st, 2012 through June 30th, 2013. Grant categories
include touring grant, which assists the touring project at multiple locations in the US and Canada, withemphasis on locations outside major metropolitan areas, where there i little exposure to the Japanese
performing arts, and collaboration grant, which facilitates the collaborations between Japanese and Privacy - Terms

American/Canadian artists to create a new work with the potential to develop into touring projects. The
application deadline is Tuesday, November 1, 2011. To find out more information about this award, please
visit http://www. jfny.org/arts_and_culture/paj.html.

ANNOUNCEMENT ON ADDITIONAL RECRUITMENT OF STUDENT INTERNSThe Japan Foundation is implementing a program to dispatch students from Japan, who are majoring inJapanese-language education at universities/graduate schools in Japan, to overseas educational
institutions as student intern for the purpose of supporting Japanese-language education. It also aims toprovide the Japanese students with the opportunities to experience first hand the field of Japaneselanguage education overseas.

JET MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL PROGRAM - PARTICIPANT'S ESSAYS
As you may have read about in previous issues, JFLA sent 32 high school students from all over theUnited States to Japan back in July for the first inaugural Jet Memorial Invitation Program to foster
friendship and goodwill between the youth of both countries. One of the assignments for the program wasto write a final essay about the participant's experiences abroad and we have included three of the essays
here for you to read. We will be posting four essays a month for the next eight months so that you will
have the opportunity to read the experiences of all 32 participants of the program. This month, we will befeature the essays of Chamarra McCorey, Fan Chen, Marlene Campos and Michelle Pham.

SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR TEACHERS OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE IN THE U.S.
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, in collaboration with DePaul University conducted a four-day Summer
Institute in Arlington Heights, Illinois, in August 2011. The five topics of Content Based Instruction andCritical Thinking, Testing and Can-Do Statements, The Japan Foundation Standards, andNetworking/Advocacy were presented by Dr. Nobuko Chikamatsu of DePaul University, Professor Sukero
Ito of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Maki Watanabe Isoyama of the JFLA respectively. There wasalso a Special Topics on Japanese Studies, Ethics, and A-Bomb discourse presented by Dr. Yuki Miyamotoof DePaul University, Japanese Literature presented by Dr. Miho Matsugu of DePaul University, GamePrivacy
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Animation presented by Dr. Norko Tomuro of DePaul Univeristy, and Film/Japanese Culture presented byDr. Jason Christopher Jones of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Twenty K-16 teachers of Japanese
language gathered from all around the country – as far away as Hawaii to attend. They reviewed andimproved their teaching practices by revisiting basic knowledge and concepts of Japanese language
pedagogy. They also gained firsthand knowledge of Japanese Studies, and built a network throughdiscussions with other teachers.

NURTURING LEADERS IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATIONThe 4th Annual Leadership Workshop was hosted at the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, over theweekend of August 6th, 2010. Participants were selected from various teacher's organizations across thecountry to take part in this two day workshop. Lecturers were presented by Janet Ikeda, President of ATJ
and Maki Watanabe Isoyama, Senior Program Officer of JFLA. Topics covered included networking,advocacy and grant writing. This is the first of a two part workshop, which will continue at the ACTFL
Conference in November.

2011 J-POP SUMMIT FESTIVAL - REPORTOver the weekend of August 27th, the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles in cooperation with the Consulate
General of Japan, San Francisco cosponsored the J-POP summit in Japan Town, San Francisco with manyother sponsors and partners. The festival celebrated all aspects of Japanese pop culture with many
performances scheduled during the two-day event. It was also one of the first events organized by aJapanese organization here in the United States. We received much interest about Japan at our booth andhad many opportunities to discuss the future of J-POP in the bay area. Through events like this, the JapanFoundation is able to reach out to large communities to introduce the culture of Japan to those who would
not normally have the chance to experience it first hand. Our gratitude goes out to New People, whoorganized this festival, and all the supporters who came out during the weekend.

STAFF UPDATEPrivacy - Terms

Our office continues to grow into the fall with the addition of two new individuals to our team. Andrew
Nohan will join us to help out with this year's JLPT administration. He was previously on the JET programand also worked in Japan for several years before returning to the states. Masayo Matsudaira is also
joining this month and will be taking over the duties of Mamiko Nakai who will be going on maternity leave
later this fall. Hiroki Kaifu, who was helping us out over the summer, has completed his summer internshipwith us and will be returning to school in the fall. We appreciate his help and wish him best of luck in hisstudies.

NEW NIHONGO LIBRARY ONLINE SEARCHABLE CATALOG
In order to make it easier for our users to search for materials in our Nihongo Library, we consulted withEOS to develop an online catalog for our library. This new system makes it easier for us to manage ourinventory of over 10,000 print and audiovisual materials. Furthermore, our users can quickly searchthrough our entire catalog for specific items.

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