Learn and Teach Japanese

5 design concepts built in to this garden are given in this blog article, https://meijergardens.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/five-main-concepts-for-understanding-the-richard-helen-devos-japanese-garden/

2015-01-27

renting cellphones in Japan (short stays)

---Airport pickup is one option. These links may be helpful, too:

(1) SIM for 30 or 60 days, http://www.so-net.ne.jp/prepaid/en/index.html
(2) SIM for 7 days or 14 days, http://service.ocn.ne.jp/mobile/one/visitor/en/
(3) App for Free WiFi Search, http://www.ntt-bp.net/jcfw/en.html

comparing several companies in 2014 this one seems to have one of the most competitive prices:

http://en.wifi-rental-store.jp/

2015-01-14

Tables of Joyo Kanji; advice for study

Several web resources stumbled upon today:

1. https://easstudent.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/learning-kanji-using-shorter-sentences-to-study-more-efficiently/

Advises college students of various ways to learn to know kanji.

2. https://orthographiesoftheworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/the-japanese-writing-systems-hiragana-katakana-and-kanji/

Tells the story of several writing systems of the world languages; this one is about Japanese

3a. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_j%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji Prints out as PDF to 136 (set to no margins for tablet viewing)

3b. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Joyo_kanji_by_reading allows look-up according to reading

2014-12-26

oral narratives - Tohoku

Voices from Tohoku, http://tohokukaranokoe.org/

Over the past 3+ years, we have collected video oral narratives from more than 10 communities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. We have more than 500 hours in total, making it one of the largest such archives we know of. Most of the interviewing has been done by undergraduates at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University, Tokyo.

"Voices of Tohoku" is a Japanese website that features a collection of clips taken from our full archive, each with Japanese transcriptions and thematic tags. These clips were first provided to our primary audience--the Tohoku informants themselves--as some record of how people felt during the unfolding of events within community life in post 3.11 Tohoku. The stories are not always happy but one informant suggested that we make them available to the public. "After all," she said, "we only told you these stories so you would tell the world what really happened." The website is not fancy but it is functional, a work in progress. (Of course, we have full release forms for all material.)

During the data collection, we returned to each site for repeated visits for at least a year, always doing volunteer work to better understand the specifics of the community. Rather than focusing on the often horrific tales of destruction on "the day of," we tried to give our informants a more expansive chance to talk about their lives in more detail. Wanting minimal interruption, we often asked only three questions during our interviews: what was your community like before 3.11; how has it been from the disaster until today; what is your vision of the future?

We are not collecting any more Tohoku narratives, not because the situation is in any sense "over"--it is not--but because we do not have any more money to send people into Tohoku. We are currently translating the interviews into English and looking for a way to make the full archive open to other scholars in a responsible and effective way.

We gratefully acknowledge support from Sophia University, the Toyota Foundation and a JSPS grant from the Japanese government. Also, we thank the many graduate students, post-grad scholars, colleagues, NPO leaders and of course, our many interviewees and collaborators in Tohoku, who have helped us make the archive what it is so far.

[cross-post from H-Japan, 26 Dec 2014; D. Slater]

2014-12-13

annual Trend Words in the Japanese language

from 2014 流行語大賞: ダメよ〜、ダメダメ (top 1, but not suitable for younger kids?)、ありのままで、and 壁ドン。

2014 流行語大賞 http://singo.jiyu.co.jp/

2014 流行語大賞 with more explanation http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2139591219654639001

Interesting 壁ドン examples

カップヌードルＣＭ壁ドン編, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FLY8xeW3Ps

壁ドンプロモーション at GU, http://www.japantrends.com/gu-kabe-don-ginza-event/

2014-10-29

art in the 1950s - Japan's protest painters

http://japanfocus.org/-Linda-Hoaglund/4203 is connected to the MIT Visualizing Cultures project and includes video and many images.

For teachers of Japanese this rich visual material tells about important times in Japan. For students of Japanese, as well, this chapter of Japanese life is worth knowing.

[excerpt from the introduction in the article itself]

The image-driven VC explorations of protest in Japan begin in 1905 and end with the massive "Ampō" demonstrations against revision of the U.S.-Japan mutual security treaty in 1960. The four treatments that will be reproduced in The Asia-Pacific Journal beginning in this issue are as follows:

1. Social Protest in Imperial Japan: The Hibiya Riot of 1905, by Andrew Gordon. We reprint this article with this introduction. Other articles will follow in the coming months.

2. Political Protest in Interwar Japan: Posters & Handbills from the Ohara Collection (1920s~1930s), by Christopher Gerteis (in two units).

3. Protest Art in 1950s Japan: The Forgotten Reportage Painters, by Linda Hoaglund.

4. Tokyo 1960: Days of Rage & Grief: Hamaya Hiroshi's Photos of the Anti-Security-Treaty Protests, by Justin Jesty.

2014-10-13

online segments (science news)

Good listening practice; cross-posting from Senseionline (yahoo groups), thanks to Mio T.

series of science news for children on you tube. There are 45 episodes.
One of them is 「紅葉の季節がはじまる。」 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tr4PjdjK9s

Program list at the science channel, http://sc-smn.jst.go.jp/M100002/

2014-07-19

mooc - Visualizing Japan (starts Sept. 3); Harvard

cross-posting from www.h-net.org > H-Japan electronic list: tell others or try this experience yourself!

A first-time MIT/Harvard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), Visualizing Japan opens windows on Japan's transition into the modern world through the historical visual record. Teachers include John Dower (MIT), Andrew Gordon (Harvard), and Gennifer Weisenfeld (Duke). Begins September 3, 2014.

This MOOC will be followed by Visualizing Postwar Tokyo by Shunya Yoshimi of the University of Tokyo.

https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx-mitx/harvardx-mitx-vjx-visualizing-japan-2331

OR SEE http://harvardx.harvard.edu/visualizing-japan

2014-06-29

Tokyo statues

Public art on the streets of Seoul is diverse and numerous, but Tokyo has some notable statues, too, according to this article from AtlasObscura.com where an eclectic mix of stories appear with the search term japan.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tokyo-in-statues

2014-01-21

all about Soba

The morning radio show "Morning Edition" carried a nice story about making and eating soba.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/01/21/264399896/why-soba-is-more-than-just-food-its-an-art-form

[opening excerpt]

Traditional Japanese cuisine, known as washoku, is now an Intangible Cultural Heritage, according to the United Nations.
Tofu, mochi and miso are a few examples, but it's the buckwheat noodle, or soba, that many consider the humble jewel of Japanese cuisine. It's not easy to find in the U.S., but one Los Angeles woman is helping preserve the craft of making soba.

In a cooking classroom off a busy street in L.A., Sonoko Sakai is teaching about the simplicity of making buckwheat noodles.

"Basically, soba is only two things: flour and water," Sakai explains.

A handful of students gather around the slender Sakai as she shows them how to mix the flour and water together.

=-=-=-=-= added comment

While teaching English in rural west Japan (Takefu city, merged and renamed Echizen city in 2005) I was introduced to the local pride, cold soba with grated daikon radish: Oroshi Soba. One aficionado credited the soba to Saracens in Central Asia. And since the 30-40 km radius to Takefu boasts uniquely chewy and flavorful soba tradition, they claim the True Tradition of Soba. In recent years they opened the "soba dojo" or practice hall where busloads of day trippers and area school children, elderly day-center people and others learn all about the varieties of the noodle. There is a restaurant, museum and gift counter as well, all dedicated to celebrate the humble and sincere treat. See panoramas of the display case diorama showing soba making in miniature, http://tinyurl.com/sobadojo1 and http://tinyurl.com/sobadojo2

2014-01-20

origami - show me the money

spotted at restaurant wall in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105

2013-11-19

web project "Culture Japan"

Culture Japan showcases the latest in Japanese pop culture including anime, robots and media.
Producer Danny Choo's character 'Mirai Suenaga' is set to collaborate with the Japan National Tourist Organization as a mascot soon.
http://www.dannychoo.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/dannychoodotcom

There are also videos he has made on various topics.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tokyostormtrooper

2013-11-09

wow - Japan's "Freshness Burger" solution to female consumer constraints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5kTiP4wDQU tells the story of "The Spell of OCHOBO" (modest, small mouth to be covered in public) in 1 minute and 39 seconds.

The hamburger restaurant's "classic beef burger" is large and sales to women was extremely low.

But by supplying an artfully stiff wrapper that shows a tidy woman's mouth, the consumer can hide behind the paper and take wide open bites of the sandwich while maintaining the cultural norm.

2013-11-04

article on 3.11 reconstruction - hurdles & scaffolds

From the contributors to the weekly digest of Japan Focus.org

http://japanfocus.org/data/Down_and_out_in_Fukushima_Slodkowski_Saito.pdf

2013-10-29

animated KANJI mnemonic videos

...videos that use storytelling and mnemonics in an effort to provide some memory tools for students learning kanji. The stories are based on the required
kanji for Genki and are posted as YouTubes. We have not been able to complete stories for all chapters of Genki 1 and 2, nor have we been able to
revise some of the chapters as we had wanted, but I thought that we could at least let you know where they can be found,

http://www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/programs/other/japanese/videos.html

[senseionline 29 Oct 2013]

2013-09-11

promotion of Tokyo (Summer Olympics 2020)

News, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22MeTjaF_L4

Tokyo 2020 Bidding Committee channel on Youtube, including
http://www.youtube.com/user/TOKYO2020bidcommitte/videos
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tvPubeNjmI

Is Japan Cool? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJU8n-0oYRs

2013-08-29

bilingual brains, TIME magazine

http://news.villagepages.org/2013/08/22/time-magazine-explores-the-power-of-the-bilingual-brain/

is a feature story (drawn from TIME magazine) in the newsletter of the Concordia Language Villages that describes features and functions of multi-lingual brains.

Parents, students, school board members all may take an interest in this subject!

--Guven Witteveen, sjmi@hotmail dotcom

Outreach Education Consultant and Evaluator

St. Johns, Michigan

www.linkedin.com/in/anthroview

2013-08-19

central Tokyo, robotic bike parking underground [video]

[cross post from Rushton Hurley's monthly ed tech news, Next Vista.org]

How about a bicycle park in Japan that is mostly underground to save precious surface space?

This video is part of a Japanese culture series... http://youtu.be/pcZSU40RBrg?t=10s

central Tokyo, robotic bike parking underground [video]

[cross post from Rushton Hurley's monthly ed tech news, Next Vista.org]

------Guven Witteveen, sjmi@hotmail dotcom

How about a bicycle park in Japan that is mostly underground to save precious surface space?

This video is part of a Japanese culture series... http://youtu.be/pcZSU40RBrg?t=10s

2013-07-22

practicing KANA

http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/ and see also http://www.laits.utexas.edu/japanese/joshu
Has

(1) kana charts (kyookashotai) with stroke orders, example words and audio
(2) flashcards (kyookashotai) with audio
(3) online exercises (oosaka), some of them with audio
(4) writing exercises (kyookashota)
(5) word search

2013-06-21

video conversations - Japanese watered down?

Courtesy of the youtube channel from Chuo Daigaku, a 29 minute dialogue between a linguistic professor of Chuo University and a rakugoka about

Japanese language, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YBxms2EHc

tozan, yama nobori, hiking, mountain climbing

However you call it, the views are great. Pictures from Otsuji-yama in Toyama-ken, June 2013.

Summit altitude 1,361 meters.

[photo credits, T. Saito]

2013-05-22

a 3.11 documentary as _kyozai_

There have been many videos about 3.11 but this one is simple and "home made" so I think it is very powerful; cross-posted with the permission of Hatasa-sensei. He has supporting materials for teachers of Japanese, too (see URL below).

"Kyo-o mamoru" (Resilience - Protecting Today, 2011)

This documentary film depicting lives of people in Rikuzentakata after 3.11 earthquake and tsunami is now available as teaching material.
Director/producer, Ms. Yuka Kan'no, interviewed people in her hometown (Rikuzen takata), including her mother, her childhood classmates, and their parents after the 3/11 disaster. As a local, she was able to bring a unique perspective to the experience. The film was presented at the Yamanashi Film Festival in 2011, and has been shown throughout Japan.

Please feel free to contact Professor Kazumi Hatasa. (khatasa@purdue. dotedu)
Details and the subtitle project are available at http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/hatasa/protect-today/index-e.html

A shortened version (7.5 minutes) can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzETwmxFE4M
Kazumi Hatasa, Purdue University; Director, Middlebury College summer Japanese School

2013-04-06

video, walking Japan. Also - bento video

amusing videos from Yamaha Motors:

The company apparently collaborated with a local culinary institute and ryokan in Shizuoka to introduce bento showcasing Yamaha vehicles. The one for Japanese New Years' Day would be useful in introducing osechi ryori.
http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/vehicle-bento/

Mr. Nagakawa (永川優樹) and his incredible work... great shots of what it is like to walk through different parts of Tokyo.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL17E318160C710C64

Browse for more of his work at
http://www.youtube.com/user/egawauemon/videos?view=1

2013-04-03

learning to type in Japanese

Google Japan demonstrated their "patapata"; input method.
Google 日本語入力パタパタバージョン http://youtu.be/HzUDAaYMNsA

2013-03-26

video - Fukushima disaster +24 months

Two years on: this 5 minute youtube video includes many comments by local people (with subtitles).

Cross linking from full article, http://japanfocus.org/events/view/177

LINK, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vhm_mpXTQKE

Context: Dr David McNeill is the Japan correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and writes for The Independent and Irish Times newspapers. He covered the nuclear disaster for all three publications, has been to Fukushima ten times since 11 March 2011, and has written the book Strong in the Rain (with Lucy Birmingham) about the disasters. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator.

2013-02-13

art exchange 2013 - elementary & middle schools

In a few weeks my town hosts an annual art exhibit: the USA children's artwork from fall 2012 is paired with summer 2012 artwork from our sister city in Shiga-ken. Then we sent art to Japan for display in their town library in summer 2013. Among Michigan's sister city interchange of student art, this is the biggest. A small sample of the artwork from elementary grades 1-6 and a few pieces from middle school are online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HE4TABaj2Fg
Other years are recounted at http://mishigan.blogspot.com

2013-02-10

clearance: Japanese Teachers' NET

http://www.japaneseteachers.net/ will end service on February 28 with collected resources

to migrate over to a colleague's site, http://www.japteach.com

This process may take many weeks, so the quickest way to browse and save materials from J.T.net is to visit before the Feb. 28 closure date.

2013-02-05

fun online media links (updates)

thanks to Sachiko R. for this:

The media links page on the Fun Japanese website is divided into the following categories: TV, newspapers, radio, magazines, videos, web-based sites, facebook and twitter, and blogs. http://www.members.shaw.ca/renovich/funjapanese/

<> The NHK for School site has clips (1-2 minutes) with clearly pronounced Japanese that might be useful for a starting point of a discussion.
<> Fuji TV has an especially large section on games in the Fujiterebi*Puranettsu section. Older cultural games are still available on the website at
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/game/land/index.html (Click on Seasons)
<> The children's newspapers have furigana to help with the kanji. Yomiuri Kodomono News Weekly seems to have a short manga with each article that could be used as a visual aid.
<> NHK Radio News lets you choose between different speeds to build your listening skills. The NHK News Web has the written version so that you can listen and read at the same time. (Though the intonation on the NHK News Web stories seem a little bit off, or is that just my perception?)
<> Brad Kremer's "Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey through Japan" is highly recommended.
<> The Japan Forum's Click Nippon website has been renewed with the current focus on fashion in Japan.

2013-02-02

U.S.A. high school students to Japan - J.E.T.

...application for the 2013 JET Memorial Invitation Program for U.S. High School Students, please make sure to have your candidate registered by then.

There are three important dates for this program:

1. February 8th, 2013 (5pm Eastern Time): Applicants, through their Japanese language teacher, must sign up for the 2013 National Japanese Exam (NJE) organized by AATJ. If you are not a member of AATJ, you will need to become a member first and there is a $40 membership fee. The 2013 test is required for applying to JET-MIP.

2. March 1st through April 10th, 2013: Teacher must administer the online exam to the candidate and then print out their scores.

3. April 17th, 2013: JET-MIP applications, including NJE scores and transcript, must be mailed by the applicant's Japanese language teacher to JFLA by this date (NO FAXES or EMAILS).

For more information, please visit the 2013 JET-MIP page and if you have any further questions, please contact the program coordinator below.
http://www.jflalc.org/jle-jet-mip.html

Thomas Lin
2013 JET-MIP Coordinator
5700 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-761-7510x109/105

2013-01-29

JP gov videos, diverse subjects

thanks to Sachiko R:

...promotional videos about Japan. [examples]
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/index.html

Japan. Tomorrow Starts Here is a 3-minute video about highlighting Japan's direction for the future.
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg2913.html

The Emperor and Empress' visits to various countries including his first visit to Canada and the US in 1953.
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg2654.html

Souvenirs of Japan Contest, http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg1784.html
Iwako Erasers, http://www.iwako.com/
Irodori Edo Kiriko, http://www.edokiriko.com/irodori1.htm
Kenji Kumakura Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/kikukagome?feature=watch

2013-01-27

healthy school lunches in Japan

thanks to Dan C. for these two links,

On Japan's school lunch menu: A healthy meal made from scratch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9chwTD-fOJg AND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cefa8S6aRBY

2013-01-22

website, 400 years of British - Japanese relations

cross-posted from H-Japan at www.h-net.org

2013 marks the 400th anniversary of Japan-British relations. King James l sent Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hidetada presents and a letter, which were
received in September, 1613. The letter survives in Tokyo University.
Ieyasu received a telescope - the first ever sent to Asia - and Hidetada a precious cup and cover. The Shogun reciprocated with two suits of armour
(which are extant), and Ieyasu gave five pairs of gold screens (lost) and a shuuinjo, which survives in Oxford University. A vast number of events is planned for 2013, including a major show at the British Museum which will open 400 to the day after the date of the shuuinjo. We aim for '400 connections for 400 years',

http://www.japan400.com

2013-01-19

2 ways for browser to do kanji look-up

Thanks to S.C. for the first mention:

Google Chrome is an alternative browser (others are Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and so on) known for it's speed and security as well as "extensibility" - it supports apps, extensions (in browser functions), themes, and a webstore for finding these tools.
Furigana Injector from Akira Kurogane is an extension to Chrome that (on a click) looks up the readings for kanji words and inserts them inline as furigana.
It also provides quick dictionary lookup (mousable), supports kanji levels (based on "most common kanji" count.
You can find Google Chrome at http://google.com/chrome
Once you install Chrome, you can add the extension by visiting the Google Chrome Web Store
- search for "furigana";
- look under the extensions tab
- install Furigana Injector from (Akira Kurogane)
- the Injector waits for a Japanese Language page before "volunteering" to help

And thanks to S.T. at Asia Pacific World for reply with even better alternative:

There is another plugin with similar functionality called rikaichan. I have used it for several years, and rather prefer it to Furigana Injector. Rikaichan was created for Firefox, but now there is a version for Chrome called Rikaikun.

After using Furigana Injector for just a few minutes, it is easy to see that rikaichan is substantially smoother and less glitchy. And even within the first few words of Furigana Injector's "welcome page", you can see an advantage of rikaichan / rikaikun. In the sample Japanese text there, Furigana Injector separates 医学生 into 医学 and 生, providing a separate pop-up translation for each part, whereas rikaichan / rikaikun recognizes the whole thing as one word, and translates it as a whole.

2013-01-11

links page, "fun in Japanese"

Thanks to S. Renovich:

...a page of links called "Language Learning" on the Fun Japanese website.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/renovich/funjapanese
see also http://members.shaw.ca/funwithwordsinjapanese/

Nihongo E-na made by The Japan Foundation Language Institute in Kansai has a wealth of information about various websites and new sites are added on a regular basis. I also like the fact that the feature website and e!Kore Q & A changes each time you click to go to the website. The introductions to the websites are very useful in getting an overview to the sites, especially if you are visiting for the first time.

AJALT's website has an interactive section called "Life in Japan Mitokotto" which was quite entertaining. You can explore so many places in the town and watch real-life situations such as asking for directions, listening to train announcements, and ordering food.

For Japanese textbooks that have study material on-line, you will find their links.

On the Teachers page, I have also added a link to Tachibana-sensei's "Nihongo Ganbatte."

2012-12-20

mythology website

part of the cultural literacy in learning Japanese:

official site of mythology made by Shimane prefecture, http://www.japanesemythology.jp/
<2012 is 1300th anniversary of Kojiki>

2012-12-05

practice listening to Japanese

[keep up with live, spoken Japanese] nice short podcasts of interviews on business and other topics: http://www.nhk.or.jp/r-asa/

2012-12-01

paper craft (PowerPoint) slides for guidance

[thanks for JFLALC's Watanabe-san]

Free download site for paper crafts using PPT. Lots of stuff for New Year events, Setsubun, and so on.
http://www.pulsedesign.jp/test/ms/pipc/html/officelife/template/kodomo_1.html
All files are set for A4 size as default. Make sure to change Slides Size to Letter Size at Design -> Page Setup, before printing them out.

2016-01-13

2015-11-29

2015-11-02

2015-10-28

2015-06-10