The Sasakawa Peace Foundation recently refocused its policy on information exchange, and sponsoring this conference in Oregon is one of their first projects under this new intiative. Representatives from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.S. will meet in Portland for three days to discuss common approaches and problems related to standards in Japanese language education. Of course, our work here in Oregon will be at the center of many of these discussions. We hope that this intial international meeting will lead to the formation of a communication network among various countries for sharing information on common problems and issues. We are honored that this conference will be held in Oregon.
Local teachers are, of course, welcome.
The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites in downtown Portland from Thursday, December 11 until Saturday, December 13. Receiving this kind of recognition and support is important and gratifying. But the important measure of our work is not the amount of money we collect, but the number of lives we touch. Making American students aware of Japanese culture and proficient in the language is the ultimate goal of everything we do. I hope that these awards spark a new vitality in our work together and improve the quality of our work with individual student.