A New Year for Club Nippon

The summer is almost over and it is time to begin another year with Club Nippon. I hope that all of you have had many warm wonderful days.

This year will be very exciting for the club. Hopefully we will be able to accomplish even more than we did last year. (See side bar.) Together at our first meeting we can determine what you want to do and what you would like to see happen.

Clubs such as Club Nippon are very important especially with our ever changing economic market. Each of us should know other cultures and other languages so that our eyes are opened and we free ourselves to know others as individuals. Through Club Nippon we have a window on the world.

I hope to see many faces at our first meeting. Bring your friends and your ideas. If for some reason you cannot attend and you would like your ideas to be known, do not hesitate to call or email me or any of the other board members.

Welcome back to a new year at UW Oshkosh. Good luck to each and everyone of you in the up coming academic year. To all of our friends here and abroad we wish you luck as well. Please write and tell us about events in your life. Together the club members can have a wonderful year.

Some Club Activities from the past year

	Trip to the Yaohan Japanese Shopping Center in Arlington Heights, Ill.
	Banzai Bowling Party
	Club members were guests of the Children of Kannonji Exhibit at the Fox Valley Children's Museum.
	Dinner at Mako's Japanese Restaurant
	Japan Week Events: Japanese Culture display, animation night, movie presentation, guest speaker, tea cerimony, and more.

Japanese Programs Continue to Grow

Welcome back, everyone, to our fall semester! I hope you had a wonderful vacation. I spent about a month in Japan this summer, seeing my family and friends, doing some research and promoting the VOICE program and the Summer Intensive Training Program for Teachers of Japanese. Being back in Japan was fun in spite of the month long rainy season.

As the new semester begins, there are many changes
As the new semester begins, there are many changes. First of all, Heather McFadden was newly elected as the president of Club Nippon, Makiko "Maggie" Onuki, vice president, Satoko Morikawa, treasurer, Nate Sonnenberg, secretary, and Scott Dempsky, Oshkosh Student Association representative.

Among other club members, Charles Blaine Howell graduated from the university last semester and is now in Nagasaki, Japan through the JET Program working as an English teacher. Nate Sonnenberg spent one month in Japan this summer as an English camp counselor. Our former club president, Jill Meyer, came back to Wisconsin this summer after spending one year in Chiba as an English teacher in the JET Program.

My teaching assistant for the Japanese Program, Hikaru Kume, went back to Japan at the beginning of the summer. She now works as a tour coordinator in Tokyo. I am gaining two new assistants from Japan this semester. Their names are Chie Kakigi and Megumi Suizu. Both of them spent three weeks in Wisconsin in August and September '96 as participants of the Teachers of Japanese Program. After their experiences in Wisconsin last year, they have decided to come to our university for the whole year!

Another exciting addition to the Japanese Language Program is Akimi Hohzawa who will be teaching Japanese classes with me. I am very happy to have Hohzawa sensei on board as my colleague.

The Teachers of Japanese Program to Start on August 26
Currently, I am busy getting ready for the Teachers of Japanese Program to start on August 26. This program, sponsored by the College of Letters and Science, began as a pilot program last year. At that time, 15 interns came from Japan and served as teaching interns in 11 different schools in the State of Wisconsin. This year, 18 interns are coming and 16 schools are participating as host institutions. The interns will spend one week on the UW Oshkosh campus for intensive training at the end of August and will be assigned to their schools for two more weeks in September. Ganbatte kudasai ne!

New Instructor joins the Japanese Program

My own speciality is Second Language Acquisition and Learning. Simply stated, it is the study of how people, especially adults, acquire and learn languages other than their own native language. I have taught university level Japanese courses to beginning and intermediate students and also taught English as a Second Language at a university.

English is my second language, and for you who try to study Japanese, it is your second or maybe third language. I know based on my own experience that it is very difficult when you try to master another language while you speak English in your daily life, but I hope students who are in my classes will learn things that will be helpful and useful in their future.

--Akimi Hohzawa

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