February, 2014: Breeze Issue #76

A Free Monthly E-Newsletter for Friends of Japan & Teachers of Japanese

Japanese Language Education Update #3: Good News for Japan Bowl© and Immersion Education

by Amanda Rollins, Japanese Language Program Coordinator

Keep an eye on the National Japan Bowl© website because the due date for applications has been pushed back to February 15 due to a special announcement – the top five teams of all three levels will visit Japan through the KAKEHASHI Project. That’s a total of 45 students who will win an overseas trip this year! That’s bound to get the competitive juices flowing in Chevy Chase, Maryland in April.

Lucky winners of local Japan Bowl© competitions, like the ones in Los Angeles and in Provo, Utah on March 1, will win a trip to Maryland to compete in the national contest. JFLA is thrilled to pieces to be able to support both the local competitions and the national one! Let’s root for those students!!

In other good news, the Glendale Unified School District (CA) has decided to expand their Japanese/English Dual Language Immersion Program due to a surplus of students at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School which started the program in 2010 with support from JF. The school that will launch the new program with a kindergarten class in Fall 2014 is Dunsmore Elementary School (La Crescenta). Contact Aya Taylor (Program Specialist, ataylor@gusd.net) if you are interested in signing up your child for this amazing opportunity.

We at JFLA are so proud to see the success of a program we have supported for years.