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AATJ
NEWSLETTER
Message from the President
Hello everyone! Happy spring and almost summer! Recently, mysocial media feed has been full of friends near and far posting
photos of spring: blooming flowers, green hills, and sunshine. In
my Monterey Bay neighborhood, I’ve been enjoying gazing at
baby harbor seals and their moms wiggling around on the rocks.
Spring brings new life and hope. Every year. No matter what.
Along with the nature posts, I’ve also been seeing lots of “I got mysecond shot!” vaccine posts as well as joyful photos of families
reuniting after having to be apart for such a long time. Many moreof us are vaccinated, CDC guidelines are relaxing a bit, schools are
Ann Jordan
beginning to resume in-person learning, and our lives are
cautiously starting to shift to a different normal. Although it’s still
not possible this year, we are starting to see the day soon when we can once again travel to Japan
with our students. There’s a feeling of optimism and a sense of appreciation for things we may havetaken for granted before.
Something that we took for granted in the past was large in-person conferences, which we enjoyedjust as much for the opportunity for networking and reconnecting with friends and colleagues as
we did for the inspiring and practical professional development. ACTFL will once again have to be
virtual this fall, and we don’t yet know about AATJ Spring Conference 2022, but this year’s first evervirtual Spring Conference was definitely a success. Everything ran smoothly, and feedback fromparticipants was very positive, so kudos to the conference directors and to University of Wisconsin
Madison, for all their efforts. We wish we could meet in person, but if we have to be virtual again,
we know our amazing team can do it! The conference sessions can be accessed until the end ofJune, so once school’s out, pour yourself a nice cup of coffee, lean back in your chair, and revisit theconference.
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Shortly before the Spring Conference, the country, and particularly the Asian American community,
was horrified by news from Atlanta that followed a year of an alarming increase in incidents of antiAsian violence and hate. To provide our community with a space to gather, share, and process ourconcerns, fears, and sadness, AATJ held a discussion session called “Ochatto” on April 2nd. The
responses shared in the pre-Ochatto survey about personal and adjacent experiences with antiAsian bias, microaggressions, and harassment were deep and powerful, and a majority ofparticipants expressed a desire to have another session. Going into this, the officers didn’t knowwhat to expect or what, if anything, we should do as a follow-up. Several excellent suggestions
came at the end of that initial gathering, but we want to be sure to move forward in an intentional,
thoughtful, and responsible way. Please stay tuned as we figure out our next steps.
Please also tune in to join one of three Town Hall meetings scheduled in June by the Diversity andInclusion Taskforce, which just presented its recommendations to the AATJ Executive Board after
several months of close examination of our bylaws and practices. You will find the dates for the
Town Hall meetings in Taskforce Chair Suwako Watanabe’s article on page 13. Many thanks to all theTaskforce members for this very important work. We are excited to begin implementing theirrecommendations.
On April 17th, we had a very special webinar featuring Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dr.
Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, whose presentation, ニューノーマル、ネクストノーマル時代の日本語教育,
challenged us to consider the many ways that this pandemic has transformed how we teach andhow our students learn, and will continue to do so even as we emerge from this current state. My
brain and my heart were full after his talk, and I left feeling so inspired, encouraged, and excited. If
you missed it, you can find the recording at the top of the “Teaching Resources” page under theProfessional Development tab on the AATJ website.
The next webinar is on Saturday, July 3, featuring Takako Aikawa sensei, of MIT, who will present on“Synergy of synchronous and asynchronous learning environments: a new hybrid-model with thepower of ‘un-’ & ‘re-’”. Please note that the time of this webinar, 12 noon PDT/3:00 PM EDT, isdifferent from our usual time. Watch for information and webinar link.
The 2020 AATJ Leadership Training cohort will meet for one final time as a group on July 31st whenthey’ll be sharing reports on their short-term and long-term action plans. I am looking forward to
this celebration of your hard work and to your continued leadership in AATJ.
One of the requests that came up several times in the feedback from the leadership participants
was for a common calendar for AATJ affiliate events, and I am happy to report that JFLA’s Lena Kelly
and the AATJ Advocacy Director have created and beta-tested a calendar which will be ready to go

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live very soon. The calendar creators will contact affiliate officers to add them to the list of editors,
and a how-to guide for submitting items to the calendar will be posted on the website.
Leadership participants were also concerned about the decline in the number of potential
replacements for retiring Japanese teachers and asked that AATJ facilitate efforts for teacher
recruitment. We will begin that discussion at the executive officers meeting at the end of May, but
in the meantime, I’d like to direct everyone to a great resource from MAATJ’s website. It has links to
JFLA’s “Becoming a Japanese Language Teacher” page and Language Credentialing Pathways’ page
showing what each state requires for language teachers.
Before you sink too deeply into well-deserved summer vacation mode, please consider nominatinga colleague for the AATJ Outstanding Teacher Award. The deadline to submit nominations is July 31,
and the nomination form and info are now available on the AATJ website.
I’m feeling positive about the coming school year, and I hope you are, too. Please refresh, renew,
and give yourselves a big pat on the back for surviving this year!

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Message from the Vice President[副会長からのご挨拶]
副会長として活動し始めてから1年半になろうとしています。そしてまた新型コロナウイルス感染症パンデミックが宣言されてからもほぼ同様の期間が過ぎようとしていますが、まだまだ出口が見えず悪戦苦闘されている先生方も多いことと思います。
AATJとJFLA（国際交流基金）が中心となって提供してきたオンライン環
境でのウェビナーや交流会も積み重なり私たち日本語教師の知的財産としてAATJのホームページにアップロードされていますのでご活用ください。このような試みは今後も継続し、その都度、会員教師の皆さんへのメールやフェースブックにてご案内してまいりますので是非今後ともご参加ください。併わせて既にアップロード有されている今春のAATJ学会の各セッションもご利用ください。
また、各地の日本語教師会が主催しているウェビナーなどのイベントが一目でわかるようなカレンダーの作成もAATJとJFLAが協力する形で進められていますので、運用が正式に始まりましたらこちらの方も是Shingo

非ご活用ください。

Satsutani

アメリカ国内の社会情勢を見てまいりますとパンデミックを抑え込む

札谷新吾

べくワクチン接種が進む中で、私たちの仲間の日本語教師が犠牲者となるようなヘイトクライムが各地で発生するなど、陰惨な事件も起こっています。私たち日本語教師も日々刻々と報告されているニュースにも気を配りながら日本語を学びたいと励んでいる学生たちを応援していかなければなりません。
AATJの秋の学会（ACTFL）は今年も完全なオンライン環境での実施となりました。発表の数も去年よりはやや増えています。AATJとしてはこの秋もACTFL開催中のオンライン交歓会なども企画
してまいりますのでよろしくお願いします。
JAPANESE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY やTEACHER AWARDなどは例年通り継続中です。AATJから先生方へ配信されるメールにてその詳細をお知らせいたします。
個人的には先日、テキサス日本語教師会に招かれて「学生や生徒のやる気の持続」を促す試みに関するワークショップをさせていただきました。先生方の一番の気がかりはやはり今の厳しい状
況の中でどのように『アセスメント』をしていくかということにあるようです。パンデミック収束の向こうにある課題としてみんなで考えていきましょう。
地方の教師会に属していらっしゃらない先生方やAATJの傘下に入っていない教師会の先生方のお話も聞かせていただきたいのでsatsutan@cod.eduまでいつでもご連絡ください。

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Meet Marcus Williams, AATJ Diversity and Inclusion
Taskforce Member
Interview by Ann Jordan, AATJ President

Meet Marcus Williams—a Bronx, New York native and super-genki sensei at New Heights Academy
Charter School in Brooklyn. He is also a member of the AATJ Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce, as
well as the 2020 Leadership Training cohort. We covered a lot of ground in a long conversation that
ranged from the silly to the serious, from study abroad to boss music (new to me!) to Japanese
R&B, and his thoughts on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
(Note: Parts of the interview have been edited for clarity.)

Ann: I’ve done some research and I’ve learned some things that are intriguing and probably justthe tip of the iceberg. Can you tell me a little bit about your background, where you grew up, andwhen or how your life first intersected with Japanese language and culture?
Marcus: Wow! Let’s jump right into the time machine. I was probably somewhere in middle school.
By that time I did have a super infatuation with anime. It was a little mix of almost everything—alittle Dragon Ball Z, a little bit of Gundam here and there, Pokemon, Digimon… and I was also really
big into video games. Around fifth grade, I really began to solidify this and started writing a sci-fi
fantasy story that was very anime inspired, very Japanese video game-y.
I also had a really strange obsession or desire to learn more about Asia because it really wasn’t
something that was readily available in the neighborhood that I grew up in, which was the Bronx,
New York. Most folks in my neighborhood were Black or Latinx. We did have Asian people in ourneighborhood, like business owners, but they weren’t necessarily in our schools, so it was reallyinteresting to me.

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So that planted the seed?
Yes, but my first real foray into more authentic experiences in Japanese language and culture reallycame in high school, at a boarding school outside of Philadelphia called Westtown School. By the
8th grade I knew I wanted to study Japanese, and so I chose Westtown because there was an anime
club that had a Japanese language component to it, which was what I really wanted to do. The
Japanese component was extracurricular, not for credit, so that was kind of what was not so great
about it.
My first Japanese teacher was so genki all the time. She had so much personality, and I feel like I
bring a lot of what I learned from her into my classroom, about coming into class energetic andauthentically yourself. Her name was Fumiyo Kobayashi sensei, and she came from the local
Japanese community and was an opera singer—the real deal! My last two years of learning
Japanese in high school were with Takamasa Nagai. Taka sensei was so funny! I also took Spanish, sothat I could graduate, but was able to squeeze in Japanese.
Your first opportunity to learn Japanese formally was extracurricular, so how often was that?
My first three years of Japanese in high school were just once a week for an hour, so there was notreally that much to grasp onto. I was super gung-ho about it, super genki, always trying to learn
more. So I really did the most that I could with those one hour classes, and would spend a lot oftime on my own, with super old school methods. I had my little notebook with all the hiragana all
the way down the page, testing myself. That’s what my experience was like my first three years ofstudying Japanese. I usually encapsulate all of that as one year of learning Japanese. When I took itwith Taka sensei my 12th grade year, we made two sections. The section that I was in was for moreadvanced students who had taken Japanese before. So we were like the “1.5” kids, and then we had
another group of regular level 1 kids.
What was your family’s reaction to “I’m really into Japanese and anime, so I want to go to thisboarding school”?
Overall, my family was really supportive. I think at first, there was a little bit of skepticism. I think themain issue was the distance and the cost. But I was a pretty solid student, and they knew I wasreally interested in Japan and Japanese culture, and opportunities in NYC were kind of limited. It’s alittle different now, but back then, it seemed like the only schools that had Japanese programs werevery specialized high schools or private school, which cost a lot of money, and may or may not havefinancial aid. Luckily, Westtown School provided financial aid.

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Then you went on to Haverford College in Pennsylvania and majored in East Asian Studies. At thatpoint, where were you thinking your path was leading?
There were many transformations during my four years. I wanted to use my language skills and I
also still wanted to learn languages. I always had this goal to communicate in at least five languages
before I turned thirty. I didn’t meet that goal, but I know some sight words here and there of seven,so I think that’s better than nothing.
It was kind of funny. I actually went to college wanting to study Political Science, but then I took myfirst Poli Sci course and got the lowest score I’ve ever gotten and thought, “This might not be rightfor me.” It made me reflect and think about what I really wanted. I enjoyed history and writing, anddidn’t mind doing a lot of reading. And I knew that I was doing amazing in my Japanese class, so...
So you became an East Asian Studies major and were taking your first “real”, for-credit Japanese
course. You must have been tricky to place. What level did you start in?
Well, the summer going into my senior year and the summer after I graduated high school, I had theopportunity to study abroad at our sister school, Tamagawa Gakuen in Machida, each time for a one
month homestay. I made tons of friends during both experiences, and those were really good
opportunities to improve my Japanese. Before going, I felt like I knew a lot, and then I went to Japanand felt like I didn’t know anything.
Once I got to Haverford, I did take a placement test and had the chance to move into Japanese 3.
But I felt like there was a lot of grammar that I would completely miss by not taking the lower level.
So I went to level 2, and I don’t want to brag, but I basically got 100 in everything, at least in level 2.
That must have really raised your self-esteem after being crushed by the low grade in Poli Sci.
It really did! I loved it. And I actually felt good about speaking. Speaking was one of those things I
felt kind of paralyzed by during my experiences, but in a classroom setting I thought, “Ooh, I actually
can talk. I understand what people are saying.” And I think what happened is that big shift that
happens when you go from everything “desu, masu, masen, mashita…” and then suddenly it’s“taberu, nomu, nomitai”… What!
That’s where actually being in the country, where you can live in the language, hear it naturally inthe environment, really helps.
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experience things. Both times, they were okay with me making friends at school and staying aweekend at a friend’s house. By the time I went to Tamagawa the second time, I actually had a lot offriends.
What about your study abroad experience at Nanzan University?
It was supposed to be for a semester, but it was in 2011 spring semester, so I went sometime inJanuary, and came back a little bit before 3/11. I remember turning on the television, and it was justchaos and I was freaking out. I thought, I have to call my friends NOW, and just make sureeveryone’s okay, their parents are okay. Stateside, everyone was really worried about me, eventhough I wasn’t really impacted. My sister cried on the phone, saying “Hurry up and come backhome!” I’m just so grateful to my host mom during that study abroad experience. Every time I go
back to Japan, I always go and see her in Nagoya. I think I always had some doubts about my ability,
and she was a person who was always cheering for me, to let me know, “You’ve made it this far. You
can do it.” One of the experiences that will always stick with me is going to get my teiki ken, thetrain pass. She told me I could just go buy it myself, and I said, “Oh, you’re not going to come withme?” She said, “No! You can do it!” Another time I had to go to Nagoya Station because I was goingto visit my friends in Tokyo, and I expected her to come with me to the bus depot to make sureeverything was okay. She said, “No! You’ve got this! You’re great!” My favorite joke to tell mystudents is, I teach you Japanese because I want to be able to put you in a box and drop you in the
middle of Tokyo and know that you’re going to be safe and that you’ll be able to make friends. And I
think about those small instances that really built up my confidence and ability. I don’t think I’m
perfect. I look at myself and think, there’s so much to do, so much to work on, but I know I had astrong enough base to do the things that I’m doing now.
You’ve had a lot of experience with study abroad, both asa student and working with CIEE and Experiment inInternational Living. I think we probably agree on theimportance and power of international study and travel
experience. But these experiences aren’t equallyaccessible to all students. They are more easily available
to privileged students, just in terms of the type of schools
they may attend, communities they live in, and theopportunities open to them. So, I’d like to hear yourthoughts on student travel study to Japan as it relates to equity and inclusion.
The organizations I’ve worked with, especially Experiment in International Living, work with a lot ofpartner organizations to increase the diversity in the program, whether that’s a socioeconomic

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thing, a race, ethnicity kind of thing. I think it’s easier to do that through an organization like those
two because they’re also drawing from organizations that are bringing in students who might not be
represented by the study abroad experience. I just happened to be a student at a high school that
had a relationship with another school. I think with Tamagawa, the president’s child had actuallygone to Westtown School. I think that’s how the two schools were connected. I have no idea howmuch it cost my parents for my one month trip, but I think they were able to negotiate some kind ofagreement. With the study abroad organizations that I worked with, I did sometimes find there
were kids who may not have interacted before with students from different backgrounds, like aparticular child in the group. I really enjoyed building connections with those students. There’s a lotof focus on relationships and maintaining
relationships formed during the exchange, and thestudents that I had for my first group are still talking
to each other in a Facebook chat. In my first group,
there was this one student that I call my “daughter”,
who’s also from the Bronx and was taking Japanese
in her high school. And I thought, “How many times
am I going to go on a trip to Japan with another kid
from the Bronx?” She’s actually doing JET now, but
she was in a group with a bunch of other people who loved anime, so they all loved each other.
There was just a lot of love in that group, and we really tried to focus on each student’s strengths.
Tell me about your school, New Heights Academy High School.
I think they’ve been around for about 14-15 years or so. When the school first opened, they started
with Italian and then developed a Japanese program. Somewhere in between came Spanish, but itwent away. There have been at least four Japanese teachers, including me. A large majority of ourstudents are from Latinx backgrounds, of Dominican descent or Puerto Rican descent, from a
section of Manhattan called Washington Heights, and some students also come from the Bronx.
That’s kind of what my home neighborhood was like. I find in New York that we tend to lumpourselves together, and sometimes we don’t give ourselves space to identify the way we want to
identify. In my classes, when I teach countries of the world, I always ask things like, if your country’s
not reflected up here, just let me know, so I can show you how to write it in katakana and help youwith pronouncing it in a more Japanese way.
I found out that your thesis for your BA was on “Intersectionality of Identity and Race in Japanese
R&B”. Why that topic?
Oh, man, you really did thorough research! I write music in my free time, and my first sets of songs
sounded like anime intros and video game boss music, but over time I kind of transitioned more into
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Japanese R&B. What interested me about Japanese R&B as a learner was that it’s not too fast,unlike rap or Japanese reggae, which is super fast. The beats are all over the place. R&B is a lot
slower usually, and I can follow ballads and those kinds of things. I always thought that the artists
themselves and the Japanese music market were interesting.
Around the time that I was writing the thesis, Korean music was starting to show up everywhere. So
I wondered, why isn’t the same true for Japan? Korean music was coming into Japan, and Koreanartists were making Japanese music, but there was a lot of talk about how insular the Japanesemusic industry is, how digital it is. It made me think about nationalism and how that can impact how
we might think about nomenclature. Do we say “Japanese R&B”? Do we say “J-R&B”?
One of things that I was often asked was why I chose to listen to Japanese R&B instead of American
R&B. For me, it wasn’t really a matter of whether it was “real” or not. It felt authentic to me
because the people that I listened to were really authentically expressing themselves through thisart form. There are also Japanese musicians who are mixed race who may appear Black, but might
not necessarily fit into the African American category, where R&B originated. It was just reallyinteresting, and I’d love to continue research on it.
As a non-native Japanese teacher, language learner, and Black man, have you experienced any
unique challenges or perceptions?
Honestly, I’ve been pretty fortunate, although it may be due to tatemae, but Japanese people havealways been very polite about me. I have had a few experiences with other non-Japanese Japanese
speakers. I generally stand out because not a lot of people look like me in those spaces. I’ve been insituations with White peers or colleagues where things I say are received differently. Where they areso thrown off by me making a joke, but when my White peers or colleagues have made the samekind of joke, everyone thinks it’s so funny. And those kinds of things have hurt me and hurt my trustin people, but not enough to make me say, “Oh, screw it!” and just throw it all away. But it makes
me just a little more mindful about how I carry myself, so I don’t get in a situation where people feelthreatened or feel like I’m trying to shame them, when I’m just being playful. Being playful is justpart of the Marcus package.
Can you talk a little about being a teacher of an underrepresented race, not just among Japaneseteachers, but among learners?
I didn’t really see a lot of people who looked like me. I think it’s a benefit, though, so my hope, and I
think it’s going to take some time before I see the results of my labor, is that students will be

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encouraged to do something they may feel unsure is actually something they can do. One of thethings that my students always ask me is, “WHERE are you from?” They’re always so confused:“Your name is Marcus Williams and you speak Spanish and you teach Japanese.” Even the parents
are kind of confused sometimes. And colleagues. I think after a while, my being a Japanese teacher
becomes less astonishing. I think an added
benefit is that I’m basically teaching in aneighborhood that’s reflective of where I
grew up. So I can make a lot of thosecross-cultural connections more easily,especially with my Spanish language
background. I don’t think it’s anythingthat a native speaker Japanese teacher
can’t do. It just requires additional time tolearn a little more about the students,
whereas I can take a kind of guess about
what students might be interested in. I probably have a little bit easier time relating those things to
my students. You can still do that by developing relationships with your kids, surveying them at the
beginning of the year and finding time to read through those.
What do you see as challenges in the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion area in the Japanese teaching
universe in the US, and what would you like to see happen?
I think the hard part is where to start. There are just so many different things to talk about when it
comes to diversity. Part of that problem is prioritizing. When is saying or doing something going to
put you in a good light or a not-so-good light? For me, the biggest challenge is just getting buy-infrom everyone, and really following through on action steps. Getting everyone on board, keepingthat momentum—those parts are really hard. When I think about Japanese language, as a nonnative, cisgendered queer person, I don’t have any sense of what that looks like on the Japaneseside. In my student population, I might have students who identify in a lot of different ways. I always
feel kind of bad, that I need to do more research. I need to be able to help my students to express
these things about themselves. They should feel free enough to do that.
That language is still developing in Japanese.
A lot of it is still developing. I was looking at something from Japanese media on Twitter the otherday, and they were talking about non-binary people in the news. The way that it was being
represented was just NOT how we would conceptualize non-binary here. It was just like “male,
female, transgender man, transgender woman, non-binary”, and I don’t know that these people
who are broadcasting this have relationships with people who consider themselves non-binary ortrans, so the way that they were representing that did not seem accurate.
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We didn’t get here overnight in the US, and we still have miles to go. Lots of people are still
grappling with that. It took me a while to get over the grammatical hurdle of using “they” assingular.
For me, as a person of color, I think about safety a lot. One thing that comes with that is being
hyper-aware of where I am, how I present myself, and that I need to act a certain way in certain
spaces. So that, and being in a place like Japan, I want my students to feel like they can bethemselves and still be safe. Whether it’s an LGBTQIA kind of thing, or it’s a person of color kind ofthing. Just being able to navigate that. Luckily, I never had to really experience any of the “bad”
sides of Japan, but they’re there. I see comments that are made online about Black people. I don’tbring those up with my students, but if there are articles that I can make accessible to my students,
like the recent Nike commercial about three different girls (Japanese, Zainichi Korean, and mixed
race Black Japanese), I do. The response to that in Japan was generally not very positive, but on theflip side, there were also a lot of positive reactions with people trying to start having conversations
about race. So that was something I used in my class, even though the students didn’t know every
single vocabulary word. I don’t need my kids to know every single word, I want them to struggle abit. Sometimes you have to bring those uncomfortable things, or things that you might not be toosure about into your lessons, when it comes to things dealing with diversity. I don’t think talking
about diversity is comfortable in any way, shape, or form.
Any final things you’d like to share while you have this platform?
I’m working on curating stories of other Black learners of languages. We don’t really hear or talkabout our experiences in language studies and language classes. So we don’t really know that
there’s sometimes collective pain or collective fun or collective discovery of self that comes withthose courses. Everything nowadays is very STEM, STEM, STEM, but if we really want to create aworld that’s more connected, we have to learn other languages and other cultures. This is a projectthat could help support ACTFL or AATJ in the long run as we think about diversity and what thatmight look like, especially for underrepresented groups of language learners and instructors. There
aren’t a lot of Black teachers, but there are especially not a lot of Black male teachers of languages.
It’s still in the developing stages. It’ll be something small to start—maybe something like a podcast
for sharing stories.
Oooh, a podcast is a great platform! Super accessible and relatively easy to do. Okay, in a few
months, let’s check back in and have a conversation about a podcast. Like your host mom said,“You can do it!” I may have just created more work for you.
That’s okay! In a few months, I’ll be on summer vacation.

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AATJ’s Taskforce Announces Town Hall Meetings on
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Suwako Watanabe, AATJ Taskforce on Diversity and Inclusion Chair

The Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce presented an interim report to the AATJ executive officers on
April 17, 2021. The executive officers were pleased with the thrust of the recommendations, andsuggested that we hold town hall meetings in order to receive feedback from as many members as
possible. Three town hall meetings have been scheduled, and information about the Zoom link will
be announced in the AATJ e-bulletin:
Saturday, June 19 | PDT 10 am - 11:30am; EDT 1 pm - 2:30 pm
Tuesday, June 22 | PDT 4 pm - 5:30pm; EDT 7 pm - 8:30 pm
Saturday, June 26 | PDT 1 pm - 2:30pm; EDT 4 pm - 5:30 pm
After the D&I Taskforce met three times from December 2020 to March 2021, we started to see
our direction for recommendations as follows:
1. Core Values: We strongly feel that, as a professional organization, AATJ should be committed toholding diversity, equity, and inclusion as its core values. This should lead to offering training andworkshops addressing diversity and inclusion as regular professional development. More
importantly, the core values should compel AATJ to take a more active role in facilitating academic
and professional exchanges of ideas to enhance the field, ensuring equitable and respectfulparticipation by members.
2. Membership Database: AATJ needs to have a more comprehensive grasp of the profiles of its
membership in terms of various aspects beyond basic demographic information. The database may
include (but need not be limited to) such elements as ethnicity, language background, discipline or
subject, and type of work setting. Such a comprehensive database enables AATJ to keep track ofchanges in the profile of the organization and its membership.
3. The Bylaws. The goals in the current bylaws contained in the section titled “Purposes” should be
updated to align with the current status of the field, given that the profiles of both teachers andlearners have changed drastically since AATJ was first founded and the organization has continued
to change in recent years. The “Purposes” section should be revised after identifying core membersthat AATJ is expected to serve according to the Bylaws, relevant disciplines to include in its scope,and a vision for societal impact and sustainability of our profession. Redefining the goals of an
association could have a major impact on its membership, and we hope that AATJ facilitates arevision process to reflect the views of as many members as possible.
4. Network, Exchange, and Collaboration among Members: While we recognize that collaborative
work between K-12 and college and between disciplines has been taking place, we feel that AATJ
could do more to foster such collaboration and exchange of ideas among members with diverse
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backgrounds. The following areas of cross-sectional networking and exchange seem to be lacking inparticular: between native and non-native teachers; K-12 and higher ed; linguistics/pedagogy andliterature.
Of course, we are not limited to these four points, and there are many other ideas and issues suchas the need to diversify learner profiles, increase diversity in teaching materials, enhance researchon diversity, equity, and inclusion, and support the current population of Japanese-language
educators and ensure that we create a welcoming professional community for the next generationof teachers.
These recommendations entail work and efforts that go beyond a short period of time and involve
various aspects of AATJ’s services and programs, so we recommend that AATJ establish a standing
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, to advocate for DEI within AATJ. We suggest thecommittee shall consist of 5-9 inaugural members, nominated by the membership via a process
directed by the Executive Board and advised by the Taskforce, to serve staggered terms of 2 or more
years. Subsequent committee members shall be appointed by procedures established by theinaugural committee and approved by the executive officers.
The charges of the DEI Committee shall be to:(1) review and recommend ways to enhance DEI in AATJ’s activities and programs (Bridging
Scholarship, JNHS, NJE, conferences, newsletter, etc.)(2) work together with the Director of Professional Development to provide DEI training for AATJ
members(3) plan ways to increase diversity in profiles of teachers and students (hiring practices,administering membership surveys, advocacy efforts), which may include coordinatedplanning with the Advocacy Director(4) work with the Vice President to encourage local affiliates to address DEI issues and promote
diversity(5) suggest ways to promote research related to DEI in teaching materials, native speaker bias/
native speakerism, and other areas or topics(6) plan venues (SIG, symposium, membership meetings and conferences) to facilitate
collaboration and dialogue among all members(7) work with other professional organizations on the issue of DEI.
With regard to the Bylaws, we recommend that AATJ’s commitment to the core values of diversity,
equity and inclusion be clearly articulated, either in a mission statement, a separate statement
accompanying the mission statement, or a preamble section of the Bylaws. By doing so, AATJ will beheld responsible for adhering to the core values in its programs and activities. In addition, the“Purposes” section in the Bylaws should be revised to streamline the language to reflect what AATJ
currently offers the membership and include a vision of the association as well as any additional
purposes. In order to generate ideas for the association’s vision and review the purposes, wesuggest that the executive board, which may or may not include other directors, should hold ameeting such as a retreat.

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The following are proposed texts for a mission statement and a statement for core values:
Mission Statement [DRAFT]
AATJ’s mission is to advance and enhance the teaching and learning of Japanese language,
linguistics, literature, and other related subjects.
Core Values [DRAFT]AATJ strives to uphold the core values of diversity, inclusion, and equity as follows: AATJ recognizes
and embraces diversity as a foundation from which various perspectives are drawn that enhance
our experience and world views. AATJ values inclusivity as a quality to ensure engagement by all
members, and recognizes equity as a value to remove barriers that systemically discriminate against
and marginalize individuals or groups on the basis of race, gender identity, gender expression,
ethnicity, national origin, language background, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic
background, professional standing, job title, or age.

Global Network Events Continue This Summer
Yukiko Hanawa (New York University) and Shinji Sato (Princeton University),
AATJ-Appointed Representatives for the Globally Connected Online Japanese
Language Series, and Junko Mori, AATJ Immediate Past-President

In this unprecedented time, it has been a year characterized, among other things, by many
webinars and online events. Over the past seven months, you may have noticed announcements of“Global Network Events” in the AATJ Members Email Bulletins. The first two events occurred lastyear and were organized by the Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (November2020) and the Society of Japanese Language Education Hong Kong (December 2020). The seriescontinued in March with an event hosted by The Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign
Language (日本語教育学会), and the most recent installment in the series, organized by theJapanese Language Associations of Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, took place on May 15.
These events are part of the GN Project “Globally Connected Online Japanese Language Series”「グローバルにつながるオンライン日本語シリーズ」, and are part of the response to thepostponement of 2020 ICJLE (International Conference on Japanese Language Education) in Macaudue to the global pandemic.
The Global Network for Japanese Language Education (GN/日本語教育グローバルネットワーク) iscurrently composed of twelve national and regional associations and groups. One of the major
efforts of GN is convening ICJLE, which is ordinarily held every other year. The first ICJLE meeting
took place in Japan in 2004, with meetings in subsequent years being organized by different

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regional/national associations, including one held at Columbia University in 2006, which was jointly
convened by the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) and the National Council of Japanese
Language Teachers (NCJLT), which later merged into the current AATJ in 2012. There have been ten
ICJLE meetings scheduled by the twelve national/regional member organizations, including
conferences hosted in Italy (2018), Indonesia (2016), Australia (2014), Japan (2012), P.R.C. (2011),
Taiwan (2010), and South Korea (2008).
Taking into consideration the extended gap between the last meeting in 2018 and the next
conference, GN initiated the “Globally Connected Online Japanese Language Series” project in thesummer of 2020 in order to nurture and further promote international cooperation amongst
member groups. What makes multi-day, in-person, international meetings so special is how we
come to meet and converse with different people. Sometimes over a cup of coffee or a quick lunch,at other times during leisurely dinners and long conversations over glasses of wine, suchencounters leave deep impressions and generate ongoing conversations and new collaborative
opportunities. Although the“Globally Connected Online” project cannot replicate the full potential
of in-person meetings, the series is a gesture towards making some of the qualities of chanceencounters possible. With attention paid towards structuring the events to include conversationsin breakout sessions, the organizers aim to spark new introductions and foster a renewed sense of
belonging to the attendees as constituents in a large transnational network of Japanese language
educators.
This summer, AATJ will be taking the initiative to host another event in the series. Tentatively titled“Japanese Language Education in Multilingual Societies”「多言語社会の日本語教育」, we hope toopen a space of convivial conversations to think together about what it means to study or teachJapanese as a “foreign” language in the present. Given how many lives are experienced in contextsof linguistic multiplicities—infusing the every day with possibilities of socialities that transcend thelimits of the commodified “added value” of multilingualism—what, then, is this activity we call“education”? Some cues for conversation may be: What are the transformative potentials ofstudying foreign language and heritage language? How are subjectification and identity
experienced and shaped in our encounters with foreign language studies as a lived experience,
considering the linguistic variabilities that surround us? How are “identities” and “ideology,” coconstitutive analytic tropes when highlighting the “foreign” in foreign language education? Moving
in a grounded fashion, focusing on praxis of education, we hope to open up a space-time of
conversation amongst the participants, as practitioners of education.
Keep an eye out for announcement of the event and registration information in future Email
Bulletins.

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Japanese National Honor Society Chapter Spotlight
Yayoi Takeuchi, The University of North Texas

It has been 12 years since I established Japanese National Honor Society (JNHS) at the University ofNorth Texas in 2010. Since then, over 100 members have been inducted into our local chapter.
Many of those inductees are now actively working throughout the US, Japan, and the rest of theworld, and it is fortunate that we can still communicate with many of them through social media
and enjoy as they share news about their career and life developments.
Volunteering and service has always been a critical part of our JNHS activities at UNT. When the
Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami happened in March 2011, members of JNHS, incooperation with other clubs and individuals, worked to gather donations all across campus during
March and April. Students set up donation tables and gave contributors the opportunity to write
well-wishes and messages of support on origami cranes. In the face of such a terrible disaster, JNHS
members at UNT were able to manifest their emotions into a meaningful community response,raising over $1500 to send to the Japanese Red
Cross. To this day, remembering the Great
Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
continues to be an important practice for ourchapter. In 2016, JNHS sent a message bannerand 1,000 cranes to the city of Rikuzentakata,
Iwate, and this past March, we commemorated
the ten-year anniversary by sharing an online
message board with the people of
Rikuzentakata.
One of the challenges our chapter initially faced was maintaining contact with students whocompleted the requirements for the Japanese minor before becoming eligible for JNHS in their final
semester before graduation. We found ourselves losing the opportunity to nominate many
outstanding students to JNHS due to not having a formal connection with them after they
completed their Japanese coursework. Around 2012, I started encouraging students to create a
new “feeder” organization, where students could meet and exchange ideas and plans forindependent study, field trips, outreach activities, study groups, and the like. This new organization
provided a space and community for those students who were likely to make excellent candidates
for induction into JNHS in the future, connecting their early undergraduate experience with anopportunity to meaningfully collaborate with like-minded individuals, and made it much easier tostay in contact with them until they had completed the necessary requirements before becoming
eligible for JNHS.

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With the introduction of the Japanese major at UNT in Fall 2017, it has subsequently become easierfor instructors to track 3rd and 4th year Japanese students for nomination into JNHS, but the feeder
club remains a vital part of our Japanese-learner community on campus. In fact, the Japanese major
has accelerated participation in the feeder club by students in 1st and 2nd year Japanese courses,
who are participating with energy and enthusiasm. In addition to assisting during the JNHS
Induction Ceremony, members of the feeder club work together with JNHS members to promote
UNT’s Japanese program at the Dallas Akimatsuri in September; participate in student tutoring andmovie nights; perform Japanese culture outreach activities in local schools and events and volunteer
at local festivals; help each other rehearse for the Dallas Japanese Speech Contest; and participate
in a “Japanese Presentation Day”.
In spite of the pandemic, our organization has still been going strong, and since Spring 2020, we
have held online inductions ceremonies for JNHS. Our recent Spring 2021 Induction Ceremony wasobserved by some of the inductees’ families, in addition to members of the feeder club, and we had
a special video message from one our JNHS members from 2010 who now teaches in Iwate, Japan.
With the situation continuing to improve, we are eagerly looking forward to resuming face-to-facemeetings and activities in the Fall. Although we don’t yet know what other challenges our chapter
may face in the years to come, I know that our alumni and JNHS network will continue to encourage
students’ initiatives to serve themselves by serving others. I hope the shared visions of the membersof JNHS at UNT will multiply and continue to serve the society at large.

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Join HiGA and Be a
U.S.-Hiroshima Ambassador!
Join Hiroshima Global Academy (HiGA) in 2022 for a three year world class curriculum, andgraduate with an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma!
You are expected to become a U.S.-Hiroshima Ambassador to bridge the two communities
as a future global leader.
What is HiGA?
HiGA is a public school founded by the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education. It’s aholistic learning community, rooted in local context with global vision.

Studying at HiGA
The opportunity is open for rising 10th grade students to study at HiGA for three years and acquire an
International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma at the time of graduation. All students live in the full board dormitory
where house staff are on duty to support, counsel and guide students.
Hiroshima Global Academy (HiGA) website: https://higa-s.jp/en/senior-high/home/

Eligibility Requirements

1

U.S. citizens who were born between April 2, 2005 and December 31, 2007, and have completed anamount of courses equivalent to nine years of schooling, or will have by August 2022.

2

Passionate, diligent and willing to learn Japanese language and culture, and to represent the UnitedStates and connect with Hiroshima as a young global leader.

3

Applicants who have an assessment of minimum GPA 3.0 or above from the last two years.

Application Process
Application period: June - September 3 (Fri), 2021 Japan timeOn-line entrance interview by HiGA: October 9 (Sat) & 10 (Sun), 2021 Japan time
Announcement of selection: October 19 (Tue), 2021 Japan time

Student admitted will enroll by the end of August, 2022

Tuition and Other Fees
Entrance Examination Fee:

2,200 JPY

Annual Tuition:

118,800 JPY *Annual Dormitory Fee:

444,000 JPY

Annual Miscellaneous Fee:

258,000 JPY

How to Apply
Please request application forms at

HiGA@usjapancouncil.org.

* Annual tuition will be exempted for international students.

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Reflections on the National Japanese Exam 2021
NJEを通して、生徒達に達成感を！
ラスベガス、クラーク高校日本語クラスでは、NJEは恒例となりモーチベーションを高めるために活用しています。期末試験の結果でレベル別にNJEを受ける生徒を選抜し、受験料は学校に負担をしてもらっています。受験料を学校側に負担してもらうことは生徒達の負担を無くすばかりでなく、日本語クラスの存在、活動を常に、学校側に知ってもらうことができる良い機会です。そして試験後、受賞者を朝の校内放送で発表しています。
今年のNJE受験前に行うレベル別の勉強会では一度も対面で会ったことのないレベル１の生徒達と毎週放課後少人数で会うことでより親しみが沸いてとても楽しい機会となりました。またレベル３の生徒達は、放課後の他に春休み中の一時間を割いてオンライン勉強会に参加してくれてとても嬉
しく思いました。このレベル３は、漢字も多く、リスニングもリーディングもとても難しい問題が多いのですがそれに挑戦する姿勢をとても頼もしく感じました。
毎年受験した生徒達は成績結果に関わらずNJEを受けて良かったと言っています。それは、NJEが生教材、または少し手を加えたものを問題にしているからだと強く感じます。一つでも解ったことが、生徒達の達成感、自信になり、モーチベーションに繋がります。授業では、どうしてもパフォー
マンス重視で、生徒達に出来るだけ解りやすくと考えがちになってしまいますが、生徒達の達成感から考えて生教材をもっと取り入れて、クラスの皆に達成感を持ってもらえる意味のある授業にしていきたいと自己反省をしています。また解らないことがあっても文脈の中から推測することも目的にしているNJEは、生徒の感想文（以下参照）にもあるように、日本語の勉強だけにとどまらず他の教科、さらに実生活にも共通する読み取る力、聞き取る力をつける大変良い機会と考えます。
また教師にとっては教え方を振り返ることもNJEの目的の一つとして掲げられています。このような目的をもつNJEを活用してより多くの生徒達が達成感を持ち、楽しく日本語、日本文化を勉強す
ることを心から願っています。

Through NJE, Let Students Recognize The Achievement!
Students in my Japanese classes in Ed W. Clark HS in Las Vegas take the National Japanese Exam
(NJE) every year. I utilize this NJE to motivate them to learn Japanese. Students who are going toparticipate in the NJE are selected according to the result of their first semester exam. I ask myschool to pay for the exam fees, which helps students and promotes the Japanese program. It’s
also important to make a morning announcement of the students who won commendations.
For the student preparation of the NJE this year, I met the level 1 students I hadn’t met since thisschool year started every week for two months, then we came to know each other better. As for20

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the level three students, they made an effort to attend an hour study session during spring break.
They showed their spirit to practice the NJE level three challenging sample questions which havemore kanji and unknown vocabulary.
Almost all students who participated in the NJE exam responded to me with positive reflections.
They said that they recognized the achievement and felt happy understanding the “quasiauthentic” materials in the NJE. This is exactly the same as one of the NJE objectives, “Being able tounderstand authentic materials develops learners’ sense of accomplishment and their motivation.”
Furthermore, as one of my students stated, the contextualizing skill is useful for the NJE but also
for the other subjects. Another NJE objective emphasizes the real world situation where unfamiliar
words are prevalent. In my Japanese classes, there tends to be more scaffolding and performancebased assessments. Thus, the NJE gives me an opportunity to reflect on my own teaching practices.
I hope that the NJE gives many students recognition for achievement and the motivation to study
Japanese language and culture while having lots of fun.
Student NJE Reflection
I have taken the NJE all three years that I’ve taken Japanese, and every year it challenges me more
and more. This year, despite my mediocre performance, I felt I learned so much more from theexperience of taking it. For the first time, I felt good about my ability to apply English reading
principals to Japanese text (especially Kanji) in the form of context clues and filling in the gaps ofinformation I wasn’t completely familiar with. Having taken the NJE 3, I feel that my journey toJapanese proficiency has only just begun. I look forward to learning more and more about
Japanese language and culture throughout college. The NJE 3, being mostly authentic Japanesereading material, has opened my eyes to the types of information presentation available in Japan
as well as the culture that medium envelopes.
(Manami Mata先生: Julius, Ed W. Clark HS)
NJEに参加する理由、利点はどんなことでしょうか。
毎年担当クラスの学生に呼びかけ、学生は任意で参加しています。日本語のコース内で使用するク
イズや試験は、習ったことがどの程度身についているかを習ったことの範囲の中で測るように作られているので、どうしてもクラスで使用している教科書の世界を飛び出すことが難しいというのが、特に初級のクラスでは現状としてあるように私は感じています。NJEはquasi-authenticのものが使われており、学生は、大学のクラスを、そして教科書を飛び出した時、自分の日本語がどのぐら
い通用するのかをNJEを通して感じることができるのではないかと思います。別の言葉で言えば、学生はこれまでの自分の頑張りをまた別のひとつのかたちとして見ることができます。それは、学生の自信や、日本語の学習を継続するうえでの意欲にもつながると思います。教師の立場から、私にとって学生をNJEに参加させる一番の魅力はそこにあります。

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今年（パンデミック中）にNJEに参加してよかったことはありますか。
昨年度から今年度にかけて、特にオンラインインストラクションになり、日本語のコースに関する様々なことが変わらざるを得なくなり、学生のProficiencyがコースのゴールまで到達しているのかというのは、教師として正直不安がありました。NJEを通して学生の日本語スキルの上達を見ることができたのは、私にとても励みになりました。
NJEの賞の受賞者はどのように表彰しますか。
昨年度と今年度は、クラスがオンラインインストラクションになり、各受賞者に賞状をメールで送るのみになりました。その後、承諾を得た学生には、学生が賞状を持っている写真を撮ってもらい、プログラムウェブサイトにStudent achievement として載せています。
NJEをアドボカシーに利用していますか。どのように利用していますか。
特に一年生の学生には、NJEの試験がコースの試験とはどのように異なっているのかを説明し（クラス内でSample questionを見てみたりもします）、過去に受験した日本語のクラスの先輩たちが色々な賞を受賞したことなどもシェアします。これに刺激を受ける学生も多いようです。
また、クラス内の活動でも、私自身、初級のクラスから生教材やquasi-authenticの教材を取り入れる機会が増え、未習項目を恐れない力、文脈から聞き取る・読み取る力を育てていけるようなアプローチができるよう日々考えています。
（CH先生：私立大学）

Opportunity to Attend High School in Hiroshima, Japan
Working with the US-Japan Council, a US- and Japan-based nonprofit that promotes exchanges
between Japan and the US, leadership development, and community-building, the Hiroshima
Global Academy, (HiGA), a prefectural-supported public school, is recruiting students from the US
to enroll as regular students in 2022. HiGA offers a learner-centered environment and is working todevelop an international student body. Rising 9th graders from the US are invited to apply for a
special program that will begin in summer of 2022.
The US-Japan Council recently offered an informational webinar for teachers and students
interested in finding out more about the school and the program, which will be made available forlater viewing. For more details and with questions, please contact Ms. Junko Tsuda of the US-Japan
Council at jtsuda@usajpancouncil.org.

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Language Advocacy Day 2021
Tomoko Takami, AATJ President-Elect

Language Advocacy Day 2021 took place virtually on February 3-5, 2021, organized by the Joint
National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International
Studies (JNCL-NCLIS). Even though it was held during an
incredibly challenging year, JCNCL-NCHL celebrated its
40th anniversary with its largest number of participants(over 270 advocates representing all 50 states and theDistrict of Colombia), and more than 260 congressional
meetings.
In this special event, AATJ was represented by Ann Jordan(AATJ President), Tomoko Takami (AATJ President-Elect),Susan Schmidt (AATJ Executive Director), and Noriko
Otsuka (AATJ Advocacy Director). All participants attended
the meetings with their state’s Senators and House
representatives respectively to promote language andinternational education.
The legislative requests focused on in 2021 were as follows:
1. Support providing at least $15 million for the World Language Advancement and Readiness
Program (WLARA) in Fiscal Year 2022
2. Co-Sponsor the Native American Language Resource Center Act Bill when it is introduced
3. Join the Congressional America’s Languages Caucus
For more detailed information on JNCL-NCLIS’s advocacy efforts, please visit their Resources,
Newsbrief, and Alerts pages, as well as their information on the reintroduction of the Biliteraacy
Education Seal and Teaching Act. As a member organization of JNCL-NCLIS, AATJ will continue toadvocate world language education aligning with JNCL-NCLIS. Also, resources for advocacy ofJapanese language education can be found at the Advocacy Page of AATJ’s website.

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AATJ Teacher Awards Now Open For Nominations
The AATJ Teacher Awards recognize outstanding teachers who demonstrate excellence in teaching,advocacy, and leadership in Japanese education both locally and regionally. AATJ customarily
presents the awards to the recipients during the ACTFL Annual Convention each November. The
ACTFL conference will still be virtual in 2021, but we will have an online presentation as part of awebinar in the fall.
Awards are given annually in two categories:• K-12 Level Teacher Award• Community College/College and University Level Teacher Award
ELIGIBILITY:
Candidates must have a minimum of three years’ teaching experience at the level for which they
are nominated, and also must hold a current membership in AATJ. Nominators may be anyone
familiar with the nominee's teaching (e.g., a colleague, administrator, parent, or student).
Nominators who are teachers of Japanese (language, literature, culture etc.) must be current
members of AATJ.
NOMINATION PROCESS:The nominator completes a Nomination Form (please download from https://www.aatj.org/
prodev-awards) , assembles the required supporting documents, and submits all documents
electronically to aatj@aatj.org by the deadline.
NOMINATION DEADLINE:
July 31 of each year.
NOMINATION MUST INCLUDE:
1. A completed Nomination Form;
2. The candidate's CV (not to exceed 3 pages), which includes professional development activities
and leadership efforts;
3. The nominator's letter and two additional letters of recommendation, signed and scanned.
SELECTION PROCESS:
A selection committee of 3-5 members, which may include AATJ Board members, examines thedossiers submitted and chooses the recipients. Finalists may be contacted for a telephoneinterview.
The committee is interested in knowing the particular way in which a candidate demonstrated hisor her abilities to best enhance the quality of teaching in large or small classes and/or as a guidefor students in their independent projects.
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The committee is concerned with the candidate’s rigor as a teacher and wants to know that thecandidate has been doing not simply a good job but a distinguished one and his or her dedicationand contributions to the students, to the school, or to the college and university has been an
inspiration to students and colleagues.
The committee also wishes to know if the candidate has been instrumental and has shownleadership in the promotion of the study of Japanese (language, literature, culture, etc.) by keeping
current with developments in the field beyond the classroom, at the school, community, state, andnational level.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RECIPIENTS:
Recipients are notified in September of each year
An official letter from AATJ will be sent to the recipient’s Principal or Department Chair, and to theaffiliate organization of the recipient. The announcement is made in the AATJ Newsletter and on
the AATJ Website and Facebook page.

2021 Annual Fall Conference at ACTFL
Junko Tokuda Simpson, Takayuki Masai, and Yasuo Uotate,
Annual Fall Conference Co-Chairs

The AATJ Fall Conference will be held virtually during the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo from Friday, November
19, through Sunday, November 21, 2021. To prioritize the health and safety of all members andstaff, ACTFL has decided to hold the Annual Convention virtually again this year. AATJ will host two
Simulive sessions and eight On Demand sessions, including three research-oriented paper
presentations and three practice-oriented paper presentations. The complete schedule will be
posted at https://www.aatj.org/conferences-fall in June.
The goal of the ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo is to provide a comprehensive
professional development experience that will have an impact on language educators at all levelsof teaching and in turn enable their students to succeed in their language learning process. The
ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo is where language educators from aroundthe world come to meet! Even though we cannot meet in person through the convention this year
again, this global event can bring language educators from distinct languages, levels, andassignments together, and learn from each other! Registration will open in early May. Please check
the ACTFL site for further details.

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AATJ 2021 Virtual Spring Conference
Recordings Are Now Available
The 2021 Annual AATJ Spring Conference was held VIRTUALLY between Thursday, March 25, andSaturday, March 27, 2021. The event took place with live online sessions via Zoom. More than 50
panel and individual presentations covered topics in Pedagogy (materials development,
assessment, language and technology, course and curriculum development, and more); Linguistics;
Second Language Acquisition; Professional Development; Literature; and Language and Culture.
CONFERENCE SESSIONS WERE RECORDED AND ARE AVAILABLE NOW FOR VIEWING.
The recordings can be accessed until the end of June 2021. If you registered for the conference
before the live event, you can log in to the interactive conference website, where the recordings
are archived and available, using the credentials you received by email on MARCH 23. If you havelost the login information, contact the AATJ office (aatj@aatj.org) to have them re-sent to you.
If you did not register for the conference but would like to have access to the recordings, you cansign up as a "Post-Conference Registrant" for a fee of $20 by clicking on the link at https://www.aatj,org/conferences-spring. At the same website, you can find the complete conference
program in several formats, including an interactive program and in printable PDF files.
Special thanks to the Spring Conference Co-Chairs for 2021: Fumiko Nazikian, Yoshiko Mori, andMieko Kawai. This trio contributed countless hours to organizing the proposal review, putting the
program together, inviting an exciting keynote speaker, and revising and re-revising the online
conference program.
The conference was supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The University of
Wisconsin–Madison Center for East Asian Studies. Our thanks also goes to the following exhibitors,
whose live and recorded sessions are also available online until the end of June:
Bonjinsha
Cheng & Tsui Publishers
Kinokuniya Bookstores of America
Kurosio Publishers
The Japan Times Publishing
Sanshusha

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Links to the publishers' information on the webpage will take you to their website or a descriptionof the resources they shared during the section of the conference program dedicated to publishers;
please visit the links to their new books and other resources on the interactive conference program
page as well.

MAATJ Survey Invitation for Professionals Learning Japanese
Yoshiko Mori, Mid-Atlantic Association of Teachers of Japanese

In collaboration with the Japanese Roundtable hosted by the Embassy of Japan in the United States
and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Teachers of Japanese (MAATJ), a questionnaire survey will be
conducted to working professionals learning Japanese and culture. The purpose of this survey is toinvestigate the impact that learning Japanese and culture has on career opportunities. The resultsof this survey will be made public and used to improve Japanese language education in a way thatcan benefit job seekers.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could encourage applicable people (e.g., your former
students, alumni) to participate in the survey. To encourage their participation, there will be adraw that will award twenty respondents with Amazon Gift Cards. The survey and invitationmaterials are available at the following links:
Survey on the impact of learning Japanese on Professional Development
Invitation email
Endorsement letter from the Embassy of Japan
Flyer
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Yoshiko Mori, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Representative, Nihongo Roundtable
President, Mid-Atlantic Association of Teachers of Japanesemoriy@georgetown.edu

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American Association ofTeachers of Japanese, Inc.
Campus Box 366
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0366

https://m.facebook.com/AATJ2012/@AATJ14
If you have any news to share on our Social Media,
please email Noriko Otsuka at:nlvankeuren@fcps.edu

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