CJLEA Newsletter  
A publication of the Colorado Japanese Language Education Association
October 2001

---

• CJLEA Activity Highlights
• Officer Nominees for 2001-2002
• Speech Contest in November
• Kudos
• Greeting from a New Member
• CJLEA Received a Grant from JF
• Monthly Member Biography
• October WWW Resources
• Technology Q & A
• Position Available
• Grant Opportunities
• Upcoming Conferences & Events
• Links to Professional Organizations
  
• Membership and Renewal
  

• November 2000: Monthly Electronic Newsletter began.
  Public Relations Officers have continued publishing the CJLEA Newsletter, the template of which was developed by Yumiko Guajardo.
  
• February & March 2001: Membership Drive
  We have added ten new members. We thank Mako Beecken, Yumiko Guajardo, Laurel Rodd, Takeko Sakakura, Kyoko Saegusa, and Susan Schmidt for their efforts in recruiting.
  
• February 23 & 24, 2001: Cultural Demonstrations by CJLEA members at the CCFLT Spring Conference 2001
  Three unique cultural demonstrations were performed by Yoshiko Kuno and Mako Beecken, Teaching East Asia, and CU-Boulder Students. We thank Kyoko Saegusa for coordinating with CCFLT.
  
• February 24, 2001: CJLEA mini meeting at CCFLT
  We thank Kyoko Saegusa for organizing the meeting.
  
• March 31, 2001: Spring Assembly at Colorado State University
  We thank Mako Beecken, Yoshiko Kuno, and Kuniko Matsuura-Cassidy for hosting the assembly.
  
• July 6 & 7, 2001: Materials Production Workshop at Pikes Peak Community College
  We thank Kaoru Slotsve and Yumiko Guajardo for organizing the workshop and Rieko McAdams for hosting the event.
• Takeko Sakakura, Outreach Committee chair, continued to strenghen our ties with the Japan America Society of Colorado by being an Educational Committee member of the organization.

More detailed reports will be presented by officers and subcommittee chairs at the fall assembly on October 6th.

第１５回　日本語弁論大会

The Japan Foundation and University of Colorado East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department will sponsor a speech contest for students in junior high schools, high schools, colleges, and universities in Colorado. The contest will be held on:

Application Deadline: October 26
Application Form

Awards will be given to the top two or three contestants in these categories.

Junior High School: open to all junior high school students
High School: open to all high school students
College I: students who have studied Japanese in an American college/university for no more than one year and half.
College II: students who have studied Japanese in an American college/university for at least one year and half but no more than two years and half.
College III: students who have studied in Japan for no more than 6 months
College IV: all other students, including heritage learners.

Students must compose and deliver the speech themselves; teacher assistance should be kept to a minimum. The speech must be memorized. Speeches should be 2 to 4 minutes at the Junior High School and High School levels, and 4 to 6 minutes at all of the College levels.

Students are free to choose topics for the Junior High School and High School levels. The topics for the College levels should be related to the Japanese language or Japanese culture.

Each school must do the initial screening and choose up to three finalists per category. Submit the word-processed manuscripts on the day of the speech contest.

In order to fairly assign contestants to a category appropriate for their level of experience with Japanese, it is essential that teachers accurately report the amount of time each student has spent studying in Japan and the student's additional Japanese language background. Student categories are subject to change.

By October 26th,

1. e-mail the application electronically (prefered method) to
   mmurata@colorado.edu, OR
2. print and mail the application to
   Minori Murata
   CB 279, EALC
   University of Colorado
   Boulder, CO 80309-0279
   
   * The application form is in MS Word format.

Back to Top

---

Kudos

Kaoru Slotsve has been awarded a $600 grant from the Alliance of Association of Teachers of Japanese. With the grant, she is planning to attend the annual ACTFL convention in November. Congratulations!

For more infomration about the grant, contact AATJ .

Back to Top

Junko Fujimoto was looking for a teaching position in Colorado last summer. Remember? She has kindly sent an update to the CJLEA Newsletter. Here it is.

I started to teach Japanese at University of Denver this September. I was very excited and a little bit nervous before the class started, but now I really enjoy teaching Japanese and talking with my students inside and outside of the classroom.

I was very lucky to get the position. Let me tell you the story. My husband and I moved to Colorado this summer. I completed my MA-TESL degree at University of Idaho this spring, and my husband would start his Ph.D. degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder this fall. Dr. Laurel Rasplica Rodd of the University of Colorado at Boulder told me about Colorado Japanese Language Education Association, so I contacted Ms. Ryoko Yoshida Keaton. She gave me a lot of useful information. I wrote an article for the August CJLEA newsletter to introduce myself. At the same time, I looked for schools that were looking for a Japanese instructor, and sent my resume to them. Professor Michiko Croft at University of Denver responded to me very quickly. After interviewing I was hired as an adjunct lecturer of Japanese. During the short search period, I was supported and encouraged by other CJLEA members, such as Professor Kyoko Saegusa of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Professor Mako Beecken of Colorado State University. I really appreciate all their support.

I teach Elementary Japanese now. Compared to the students of University of Idaho where I taught Japanese for two years, the students of University of Denver are very international in terms of their language experience and environment. There are some international students from Korea, China, and Spain. Some can speak both English and Spanish or German. Most students have had some experience learning foreign languages other than Japanese. I am glad that they are all interested in learning Japanese language and culture. The students' experiences of learning Japanese vary. Those who have learned basic Japanese seem to have big advantages. Those who have not learned Japanese at all need to work very hard in order to catch up with the class, and I know how hard they study to prepare for the class. The students' motivation and interests are also different. I would like to encourage them to achieve their own goals-One student told me that he wants to read Japanese comic books which his mother bought for him from Japan.

Lastly, I look forward to sharing my experiences and knowledge about Japanese teaching with the CJLEA members. どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

Junko Fujimoto

Back to Top

CJLEA Received a Grant from JF

Justin Miyai, Program Assistant of Japan Foundation, has kindly informed us that the CJLEA has been awarded $1,800.00 for its second materials production workshop. Members are encouraged to participate in this rewarding opportunity. For more information, contact Kaoru Slotsve

Back to Top

Hideko Shimizu

My name is Hideko Shimizu. I started teaching Japanese language at the University of Colorado at Boulder this autumn. I am very happy to have returned to Colorado. For the last four years, I have been teaching at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While I was happy there, I am much happier in Colorado. There are three reasons for this. The first reason is that I can work with wonderful students and faculty at CU Boulder. The second is that I have a husband here in Denver. The third reason is that Colorado is the most memorable place for me because of the many changes that have happened in my life here. Please allow me tell you my story. When I was thirteen years old, I was captivated by "Ann of Green Gables" - a fascinating novel written by Montgomery. Many of you may have also fallen in love with this charming story of a girl named Ann. Over time, I read literally dozens of installments the novel and dreamed about the world where Ann lived.

Many years later, I had a chance to come to Colorado when a friend of mine introduced me to Mr. and Mrs. Emitt Heitler who became my host family and sponsored me to study in the United States. Mrs. Heitler was the daughter of Mr. Shwayder who founded the Samsonite luggage company in Denver and Mr. Heitler was the company vice president. When I heard about Colorado, I had no idea what it would be like but on the day of March 16, 1981, I nervously awaited my first meeting with Mrs. Heitler at the Denver airport. While she drove me to her home, I was very curious to see the beauty of Colorado through the car window. I was very surprised as she drove through the gate to their house. While she drove up the hill to the house, I took in the view of part of their tree farm consisting of more than fifty apple trees around a pond. There was a golf course next to their property called " GREEN GABLES" which had been donated by the family many years ago. I felt almost instantly that I had stepped into the story of Ann of Green Gables. Of course, this was merely a fantasy, but a pleasant one at that.

I spent almost four years with the Heitlers while I attended the University of Colorado where I earned my bachelors degree. I returned to my hometown of Tokyo to become a graduate research student at Keio University where I worked in psycho-linguistics and socio-linguistics. In 1990, I came back to Colorado to pursue an academic career. I earned my Masters degree in second language acquisition from the University of Colorado at Denver and my Doctorate from the University of Denver. When I traveled from Vanderbilt University to Colorado to attend the commencement ceremony where I would receive my Doctoral degree from the University of Denver in 1999, I invited Mr. and Mrs. Heitler as my guests along with my husband who I also found in Colorado. Mr. Heitler was over ninety years old and I cried tears of happiness when I saw them in attendance at my graduation.

My research interests now focus on the role of orthography in psycholinguistics, language pedagogy, and second language acquisition. I have written articles for New Trends and Issues in Teaching Japanese Language and Culture (published by the University of Hawaii Press), the Journal of Social Psychology, and the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. I have also translated some of the collected papers of Milton. H. Erickson into Japanese and have published these works in Japan.
I would like to extend my greetings and my best regards to everyone.

Back to Top

These are a few examples of what you find on the Internet. You may conduct your own search using search engines. One of the recommended is Google.

Back to Top

Q: What is "web mail?" How different is it from my email program?

A: Have you ever encountered the inconvenience of being unable to access your incoming email messages when you do not have your computer with you? This usually happens when you are on vacation or attending a conference away from home and/or school.

Web mail may be one of the solutions to this inconvenience. Unlike email programs you use at home or school, web mail services store your incoming email messages on their servers which can be accessed from any computer with a broswer and an Internet connection. As long as you have access to a computer connected to the Internet, you can open your email inbox with a browser anywhere in the world. The messages will be stored in the server until you delete them from the server.

Some of us already have accounts with web mail services. Major ones are Yahoo and Hotmail. Both have Japanese capability. Asahi Newspaper has similar service called Club A & A. If your main email service has forwarding capability, your incoming email messages will be forwarded to your web mail account. Some web mail services have notification capability. When you receive an email message to your web mail account, the service will send you a notification to your main email account.

E-mail your technology related questions to Keaton .

Back to Top

Back to Top

October ~

Back to Top

Japanese Language:

Foreign Languages

Computer Assisted (Language) Learning

Others

Back to Top

Please consider our invitation to join or renew membership in the Colorado Japanese Language Education Association (CJLEA). The aims of the Association are to promote interest in and improve the quality of instruction of Japanese language at all levels in the state of Colorado, and to provide for the professional/educational growth of the membership. The CJLEA was established in April 1995, with a grant from the Japan Foundation Language Center. Among the benefits of membership are receiving a newsletter, attending events and networking with Japanese educators and other professionals.

Membership is open to teachers and students of Japanese language and others interested in Japanese language and culture education.
Membership and Renewal Form

Back to Top

Disclaimer: Links are information purposes only. Each website linked from this page is solely responsible for its contents.