CT COLT (Council of Language Teachers) Rhyme Celebration was held at Marlborough Elementary School

5th graders, Grace, Alyssa, Emily, Kyra, Eugenia and 4th graders, Hannah, Kaelie, Danielle, Zoe, Mai, and Emma did a super job to represent our school at the Rhyme Celebration on March 19th. 

Total of 169 students from Pre-K through sixth grade from 24 schools from all over Connecticut were wamly welcomed by chorus of 160 students from the host school. The participating schools then took turn to recite or sing in the 14 different languages they are learning at school or at home.

Eleven EHGEMS students recited Japanese tongue twisters (while some of them are acting out the scenes) and together they sang beautifully a song in Japanese. Then five students took turn to recite the poems in the heritage language. Alyssa, with the help of Kyra and Eugenia recited in Spanish, Hannah in Italian, and Zoe in Hungarian.

NASA and Japanese connection

We are all excited about the International Space Station's progress, cooperation of NASA and JAXA, and the liftoff of Endeavor on March 11th. Most of the classes watched the following website during Japanese to learn about Kibo きぼう and Japanese astraunaut Takao Doi 土井隆雄.

http://www.youtube.com/reelnasa

Looking for fun activities to do inside when the weather is bad?
Check the Oriami Club website below for all kinds of easy to follow Origami directions. The students enjoy the animation of directions.

http://www.origami-club.com/en/

Here are some useful expressions you might want to practice with your child(ren).

Excuse me. Sumimasen

Hello. Konnichiwa

Please give me… ……kudasai

This is for you. Dozo

Thank you. Arigato

You are welcome. Do itashimashite

The greeting before eating Itadakimasu

The greeting after eating Gochisosama

Please remember when you read Japanese written in alphabets (romaji) you have to follow the pronunciation rules similar to Spanish:

a sounds like the a in father

i sounds like the i in pizza

u sounds like the u in flu

e sounds like the e in pet

o sounds like the o in hot

There is a Japanese CD available for students to listen to. If you are interested in getting a copy of the CD which has many Japanese songs we sing at the Magnet School, please send a note saying that you are interested in the Japanese CD. I'll send one home with your child.

Research shows that children who study languages are more imaginative, better with abstract ideas and more flexible in their thinking. Students of foreign languages also score statistically higher on standardized tests, such as the SAT. Please read the following article titled Bilingual Babies to find out more about language learning.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/living/family/s_471078.html

ACTFL website below is also helpful for you.

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3651

Ways to practice your Japanese at home! 

1. When you are in the car or shopping, name things you know in Japanese, such as fruits, animals or sports.

2. When you count anything, count in Japanese too!

3. Sing Japanese songs in the car.

4. Draw a picture of words you know in Japanese.

5. Teach your friend or your cousin something in Japanese - counting, a song, etc.

6. Go to the "links" part of Tsuji-sensei’s webpage and learn more about Japan and Japanese.

7. Use language learning software. Tsuji-sensei's favorites are KidSpeak 6 in 1 and Smart Start Japanese by Syracuse Language.

Looking for a gift idea for your children?

Teach Me Japanese is a set of audio tape and a book that has many familiar songs in both Japanese and English. It is a wonderful tool to learn Japanese and many parents told me that their children loved to listen to the tape.

Kid Speak 6 in 1 is a language learning software. It offers various types of games though which children can learn the sound of Japanese words and characters. You can also learn Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Hebrew.

The book "I Live in Tokyo" by Mari Takahashi has beautiful pictures and let you learn about the Japanese tradition or celebration of each month and season.

If you are interested in other educational things for your child, please stop by at Nihongo room.

Where to get Japanese food and ingredients

You can either go to Lotte on Silver Lane, East Hartford or ADong on New Britain Ave. in West Htfd. Lotte is run by Korean people, but has a lot of Japanese food, such as furikake, ramune, dorayaki, etc. Adong is a huge Asian market and it has Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese food, etc. Their fresh vegetables, fish and prepared foods including bakery are very very good. The Vietnamese restaurant Pho Boston in the same plaza has wonderful inexpensive foods and it is one of Tsuji-sensei's favorite places to eat. Pho means soup in Vietnamese.

Another place we enjoy going is Daido in White Plains, NY. We stop there every time we go to NYC. It is off of Hutchenson's exit 23N. Address is