East Asian Languages and Literatures

日本語を勉強している皆さんへ、

Hello students studying Japanese! We are hosting an English-Japanese reading club called Tadoku Talk (多読トーク). 📖 It’s a great chance to make friends in Hawai’i and practice speaking and reading. 😊 At the club, we do fun reading (多読) and speaking (トーク) activities in both English and Japanese. We also have snacks and invite Japanese exchange students! 🍘🍡If you’re interested, please see the information and attached flyers below. The club meets at Moore Hall 112 (4:30 to 5:30pm) on these dates:

📆 Meeting Dates:
Meeting #1: Sep 9
Meeting #2: Sep 23
Meeting #3: Oct 7
Meeting #4: Oct 21
Meeting #5: Nov 4
Meeting #6: Nov 18
Meeting #7: Dec 2
Meeting #8: Dec 9

Anyone is welcome—we hope you can come and have fun with us! ｲｴｲ～ヽ(^o^)丿. If you have any questions, please feel free to email [email protected]. You can also visit our website: www.tadokutalk.com

Are you looking for a course to take this Fall 2024 semester? How about MUS 311 I (Gagaku)? Learn to play traditional, classical Japanese music that was historically used for court ceremonies! 🎎🎶 The instructor, Darin-sensei, welcomes everyone of all musical backgrounds (no experience, some experience, etc.)! This is your chance ✨ I have taken his koto (traditional Japanese instrument) class, and I recommend his classes; he is a 10/10 instructor! Don’t miss this golden opportunity into the world of Japanese music! 🎵🗾🌸

FALL 2024 COURSE ALERT 🍂✨ What’s the difference between “wa (は)” and “ga (が)”? Through JPN 452, you will learn about basic Japanese grammatical patterns through a pedagogical (teaching) lens. 🧑‍🏫✨ Whether you are considering teaching Japanese or honing your understanding of grammatical patterns you’ve studied before, JPN 452 is the perfect course for you! 😁👍 Got questions? Please feel free to contact our instructor Kanno-sensei at [email protected]! 📧✨

Congratulations to our Spring 2024 Japanese National Honor Soceity-College Chapter inductees! 🥳 The photo was taken at the Spring 2024 JHS certificate presentation ceremony, which was held on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Moore 425.

📸 The attendees, from left to right, were Kevin Tabuchi, Rochelle Jokura, Aren Pai, Rune Yanagisawa, Quinn Sumida, and Luke Hamano. Unfortunately, Jasmine Crawford was unable to attend the ceremony as she was studying in Japan.

🗣️ FALL 2024 + SUMMER SESSION 2024 courses! 🤩
DISCOVER modern and contemporary Japan through EALL 375 (Fall 2024), EALL 272 (Fall 2024), and EALL 372 (Summer 2024)! ✨

Do you still need to fulfill your Writing Intensive (WI) requirement? ✍️ Curious about 20th century Chinese literature? 📖 Look no further! With EALL 363B, learn about 20th century Chinese literature from LLL Teaching Excellence Award winner Dr. Yun Peng ✨ Knowledge of the Chinese language is NOT required 🤗 This is your sign to register in EALL 363B for Fall 2024 ✨💫

How about taking Korean dance next fall semester? 🤩 Sign up for DNCE 105, DNCE 305, or DNCE 405 and discover Korean culture through dance and music! 🎶

🍁 FALL ‘24 COURSE! ALL STUDENTS WELCOME! 🎶 Intrested in traditional Japanese music? Fascinated by the koto after watching Kono Oto ni Tomare? 🎶 How about adding MUS 311C (CRN: 76007) and/or MUS 311I (CRN: 76010) to your Fall 2024 schedule? ✨ 雅楽 (Gagaku) is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically played for imperial court music and dances 🎶 箏 (Koto) is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking with fingerpicks 🍁

Japanese Culture Club will be hosting its 3rd “Let’s Shodo” event this upcoming Friday, April 19th at 3:45pm! ☺️ The theme for this event will be sakura 🌸 and Mother’s day (swipe to see samples)

This event has a LIMITED attendance capacity so please register ASAP‼️The registration link can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/yc6k64ct 💻📱
There is a $3 entry fee for non-members 🙂

We hope to see you there! 🌸

📣 How about accelerating your graduation by taking Japanese language/literature courses this summer? 🌻✨ Register now for your summer Japanese course! 🍧

🗣️ Is Japanese or English your native language? And are you learning Korean? ☺️ If so, check out this cool experimental study!! Participants will receive a $15 gift card for completing a listening activity and two questionnaires! 🤩 To participate, please contact the researcher, Youngin Lee, at [email protected] 😊

🗣️ 母語が日本語で韓国語を学んでいる方を大募集中！この研究の実験内容: (1)韓国語リスニング・アクティビティと(2)アンケート。この実験に参加してくだった方には¥2,200のアマゾン・ギフトカード(又は$15のスタバ・ギフトカード)をプレゼントいたします！参加を希望する方は[email protected]までメールください。ご参加をお待ちしております！🤗

Tomorrow! ☺️ We hope to see you at the Multilingual Career Fair! 🗣️ Meet employers from a wide variety of fields who are seeking candidates like you with diverse language backgrounds! ✨

How about taking Chinese over the summer? ✨ Check out the Chinese courses that will be offered this summer! Taking courses over the summer is also a great way to accelerate your graduation 🥳

🗣️ Online Korean summer courses! 👩‍💻👨‍💻

Take your Korean to the next level + accelerate your graduation by taking Korean courses this summer!

Check out the Korean courses offered this summer ! Registration is now open 🤩🌻😎☀️

Summer is among us! ☀️ How about taking Chinese over the summer? ✨ Check out the Chinese courses that will be offered this summer! Taking courses over the summer is also a great way to accelerate your graduation 🥳

Reading fun 📖💖 + Summer 🌻 = JPN 407E!

Register in JPN 407E Readings: Modern Literature for this upcoming 2024 Summer Session II! Let’s dive into the world of modern Japanese literature! 🤿✨

Summer fun + Japanese language? ☀️🌻🍧🗼🎐

Looking for a unique way to spend your summer? Take JPN 101 this Summer 2024 with Iseri-sensei!

Here’s what you can expect:

🗣️ Live chat with native Japanese speakers! Practice your Japanese and ask your burning questions about Japan in real-time over Zoom

🎬 Dive into Japanese film culture! Explore classic anime movies and gain new insights into Japanese traditions and language

📑 Collaborate on a creative project! Work with classmates on a summer-ending project to showcase your Japanese skills and boost your resume!

This is your chance to:

🗣️ Speak and work with students from Japan!
⛩️ Gain a deeper understanding of Japanese culture!

Ready to embark on your Japanese learning journey? 🤩

For more info, contact Iseri-sensei at [email protected]

Wanna try on hanbok? Sample some Korean food? Dance? Play games? The 2024 Korean Culture Day is the event to go to! 💕🇰🇷✨

🗣️ The 2024 Korean Culture Day will be held on 4/5 (Fri) 10 AM to 2 PM at the Center for Korean Studies (CKS)! This event is open for everyone!✨ Come join the fun! 😄

☀️ Online summer course: KOR 302 ☀️
Upgrade your Korean language skills over this summer with KOR 302! 💪✨

📆 Registration begins March 5 for continuing senior status students (90+ credits earned) and March 6 for all continuing students!

Aloha mai kākou! 🌺 Calling all students graduating this Spring or Summer, or who graduated last Fall! 🎓

Are you proficient in another language besides English? Want to boost your resume and stand out to employers? Then this is for you! ☺️

The Hawai’i Language Roadmap is offering Spring Semester testing sessions for the Global Seal of Biliteracy. This prestigious seal certifies your language skills and is recognized by employers across the US, including right here in Hawai’i! 👍

➡️ Testing is available in-person or remotely.️ Dates are:

Feb 13, 22
Mar 14, 19 (Spring Break!)
Apr 11, 23
May 2 (UHM Study Day)

➡️ Sign up now: https://www.jotform.com/203492411529049

Don’t miss this chance to showcase your language skills and gain a competitive edge! ✨

Save the date! 📆 🌸 The Japanese Culture Club (JCC) at UH Mānoa will be hosting their social meeting at Kuykendall Hall room 307 this Friday, 2/9 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM! 🌸 There’s no better way than going to the JCC social meeting to pau hana and spend the aloha Friday! 😁🤙 Register right here: http://tinyurl.com/5853uwxr ✨

Here’s more info on the summer study abroad in Korea! 😚🫶
Swipe to find out more about the Global Village and Academic programs 📲✨

How about spending the summer studying abroad in Korea? 🇰🇷🫰✨

🚨APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, February 16
📢 Find out more information at https://www.studyabroad.hawaii.edu/programs/summer/yongin-south-korea/
🤗 Discuss your plans with a Study Abroad advisor via STAR Balance! Attend the informational meetings for more info~

한국에서 공부하자! ☀️

★ Summer Internship in Japan: Application is Open! ★

The application for the Summer 2024 Internship in Japan Program is open! 😊 This is a credit-bearing (6 credits) practicum training that includes 6 weeks of stay in Japan in July/August (Summer II). We have 8 companies that have agreed to host our students this summer (e.g., Japan Airlines, LCA International Elementary School, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, etc.). This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to explore and increase career opportunities in Japan! 🗾 Please spread the word to your friends/students! 🗣️✨

🚨Deadline: Saturday, February 17, 2024
→ Website: https://atsuhase.wixsite.com/internship
→ Application Form: https://forms.gle/9PVHLpAWriLCL7if9

日本語を勉強している皆さんへ、
Dear students studying Japanese,

こんにちは！Thank you to everyone who participated and supported the reading and language exchange club "Tadoku Talk" last semester. We are happy to announce that the club will continue this semester, and that our first meeting will be on Monday, January 22nd at MH112 (4:30-5:30pm). Afterwards, the club will meet bi-weekly on Mondays (4:30-5:30pm). Here is a summary of the meeting dates for this semester:

Meeting #1: Jan 22
Meeting #2: Feb 5
Meeting #3: Feb 26
Meeting #4: Mar 11
Meeting #5: Mar 25
Meeting #6: Apr 8
Meeting #7: Apr 22

For those returning, we're looking forward to "Tadoku Talking" with you again soon! ｲｴｲ～ヽ(^o^)丿. If you're new, please check out the attached flyers for brief information about the purpose of the club. At our meetings, we will have speaking and reading activities, as well as a collection of books in Japanese you may borrow from. Of course, you are free to bring your own reading material as well!

Thank you for reading!
日本語（にほんご）の勉強（べんきょう）、がんばってね！

~Brett & Joe

✒️ 2023 Intercollegiate Classical Japanese Poetry Contest 令和五年三校十六番歌合 ✒️ Co-hosted by our very own Professor Pier-Carlo Tommasi!

From spring dawn (春曙) to coming of age (元服), students crafted uta (poems) that captured the soul of the season! We’re thrilled to announce one of the contest winners, selected by both instructors and student peers! The top-ranked poets will receive complimentary copies of Professor Torquil Duthie’s recent book, The Kokinshū: Selected Poems. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Professor Duthie and all guest judges who contributed their expertise during the event.

One of the winning poets is Tyler McMillin, a UH Mānoa student, whose poem beautifully depicted the waning warmth of summer’s embrace. An honorable mention goes to another anonymous UH Mānoa student, whose verses vividly brought to life the tranquil atmosphere of our Japanese garden. 📖🍵🧘🌿

📙The last slide is the picture of the book prize ✨

📣 Seven outstanding Japanese majors were inducted into the prestigious Japanese National Honor Society-College Chapter (JNHS-CC) this Fall 2023! 🥳👏 From left to right: Anna Suzuki, Minqi Chen, Liv Peralta, Melody Matsumoto, Bryson Hamada, Christopher Feeney, and Marcy Tokunaga ✨

These students exemplify scholastic excellence in Japanese language studies, meeting the criteria of 3.5 or higher GPA in Japanese courses and an overall GPA of 3.0 or above. Congratulations to the new inductees! 🥳🙌

Ready to take your Mandarin to the next level? 🚀
Spring 2024 is your chance to dive into CHN 402 (Fourth-Level Mandarin II)! 🤿

With CHN 402, you can:

✅ Master advanced grammar and vocabulary and gain the confidence to hold dynamic real-world conversations 🗣️

✅ Deepen your understanding of Chinese culture and develop your intercultural competence 🀄️🥮

✅ Polish your presentation and interpersonal skills as you share your knowledge and ideas ✨

✅ Fulfill requirements for your CHN major, minor, or certificate! 🐉

Don’t miss out on this chance to elevate your Mandarin skills and open up a world of possibilities! 💪✨
Register in CHN 402 on STAR GPS today 😁

✍️The JPN 461 class had an Intercollegiate Classical Japanese Poetry Contest between UH Mānoa, UCLA, and Harvard University! 🏫🏫🏫✨

This year marks the second time Prof. Pier-Carlo Tommasi has co-hosted the event 📝✨

The 2022 edition received coverage on UH News:
https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/12/20/classical-japanese-poetry-contest/ 📰✨

Memes incoming! ✨ EALL 271 students have crafted memes inspired by classical Japanese literature, featuring themes and characters from works like The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and The Tale of Genji! ✨ This contest serves as a creative conclusion to our semester's studies, offering a fun and engaging way to connect with Japan's premodern literary heritage. 📚

🥇First Place: Naia Tamashiro
When we were first reading waka and getting ourselves familiar with pre-modern Japanese poetry, I was very much overwhelmed as maybe others were. From complex references only a keen-eyed, knowledgeable scholar would get to criticisms of lines in ways far more sophisticated than my brain could handle, it did take a lot of re-reading in order to even get a full sense of what the poem was trying to encapsulate in its simple structure. Thus, this confusion and frustration hopefully others relate to is something I wanted to convey in my meme, as poetry was repeatedly discussed in this course.

🥈Second Place: Kainoa Lopes
To summarize this meme, I used the popular soyjack meme which is just these weirdly drawn cartoon men pointing at something that is inserted in the background. This meme template is meant to insinuate that whatever they are pointing to is so amazing or something that they are very passionate about. I drew inspiration for this meme from Kokinshū, among many other works we’ve read. They have a lot of poetry about nature. As nature is a common theme or topic for a lot of the lines they write I thought it would be funny to imply that they go crazy for something like nature in Japan. Which is why I used a picture of the cherry blossoms and Mt. Fuji in the background.

🥉Third Place: Kaito Yamanaka
This meme is an edited version of the “Padme meme” from Star Wars, which shows how the second character (on the right) questions the seemingly good news of the first character (meme is read top to bottom, left to right). I decided to make this meme about the potentially not-literary accurate interaction between Genji and Lady Fujitsubo. Genji has decided to take care of the young Murasaki, and Fujitsubo thinks it’s a happy father/uncle–daughter type relationship, but Genji is really just looking to marry Murasaki. Through this meme format, I wanted to make a statement on how weird it was for Genji to obsess over Murasaki, the child relative of his former partner Fujitsubo. The first character in the original Star Wars meme also says something seemingly good but with a disturbing contextual meaning, so if the original meme is understood, the reader can assume that Genji is going to do something disturbing with Murasaki even if they haven’t read the entire story. The images are from the manga version [of the Tale of Genji, Asakiyumemishi].

Honorable Mention: Jaden Hase-Mabry
This meme represents the vice grip that the Tale of Genji has on Japanese literature. The Tale of Genji is absolutely one of the most important works of pre-modern Japanese literature, but sometimes I feel that it dominates the spotlight too often. This class has taught me about many different works that are worthy of discussion as well, which is why I Included some of my favorites that were overtaken with the "boldness" of The Tale of Genji as represented in this meme. This is also partly inspired by the email you [Prof. Tommasi] sent out earlier today, where I found it amusing that you had to ask the class to use works other than the Tale of Genji [for our memes].