January, 2015: Breeze Issue #87

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

Japanese Language Education Update #14: New Resource Roundup

by Amanda Rollins, Japanese Language Program Coordinator

It’s a New Year! In the spirit of a fresh new start, let’s explore some brand new (free!) resources available for Japanese language teachers.

Student enrollment season is right around the corner, but how can you show potential students that learning Japanese is fun? How do you show parents that learning Japanese can open doors? Send them to SPEAKJAPAN! It’s full of reasons to study Japanese and cool photographs which will get potential students excited for the language. If you’re not sure how to spread the word about the website, visit our How to Use SPEAKJAPAN page. It features downloadable SPEAKJAPAN posters, flyers, and a customizable brochure.

Yo Azama-sensei (2012 ACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year) and Tomokazu Morikawa-sensei (2014 Elgin Heinz Teacher Award Recipient) are teaming up in 2015 to bring you free online app tutorials, a series called “Apps in Action.” See how these award-winning Japanese language teachers are using online resources in their classrooms. In order to receive email notifications of upcoming Apps in Action presentations, register for the AP Japanese Language and Culture Teacher Community and make sure your settings allow for email notifications. You do not need to be an AP teacher or a high school teacher to sign up!

Did you know that you can use beautiful, professional photographs of Japan in your classroom? Visit the Japan National Tourism Organization’s Japan Photo Library (available in English and Japanese) to gain access to their large collection of absolutely stunning digital photos. The page is constantly updated with new photos, appropriate to the current season. Please pay careful attention to the “Terms of Use” for each individual photograph.

See JFLA’s regularly updated Teaching Resources and Learning Resources web pages for more. We’re always on the lookout for more resources, so email jflaeducation@jflalc.org to send us a shout out!

*JFLA does not vouch for or endorse the content of any non-JFLA websites that may be mentioned in this article.