ESL classes, services for international residents in the North Hills.

For better or worse, Pittsburgh is dominated by two large newspapers. They occasionally have coverage of local news and events, but when they do they essentially are read like press releases and don't have much personality. Some of the local weekly papers fill in the gaps, and although some of their stories are on the level of "Farmer Jones loses cow" or "Local restaurant debuts peach pie", you'll sometimes find some interesting stuff with an international connection.

Two local weekly circulars under the stewardship of the Tribune-Review recently had articles about ESL classes and cultural adjustment programs in the North Hills and the volunteers who staff them. On May 24th YourCranberry.com had a piece on "Cranberry W.I.N." [Welcoming International Neighbors] and the services they provide to new international residents and visitors.

Because relocating to a new country isn't always easy, the Cranberry Township is offering a helping hand through Cranberry W.I.N. — Welcoming International Neighbors — a volunteer program dedicated to helping international visitors and new residents by offering basic English tutoring and other personalized assistance.

The service not only helps those needing aid in basic or conversational English skills, but also assists with everyday types of questions, such as where to shop, how to use public transportation or even where to buy a car, said Chelsea Puff, community projects administrator for Cranberry Township.

"It's to help them get acclimated to the community and new environment," Puff said.

The volunteer service began in 2010 after the township hosted a focus group studying what types of challenges international residents in the area face.

Currently, there are about 20 volunteers who help with the program, many of whom have previously lived abroad so, Puff said, they know what it's like to live in a different country.

"They're looking at it as the same perspective as these international residents," she said.

The article directs readers to the Diverse Cranberry website, where they can find links to community resources and an application for the ESL tutoring program.

A few days later the McKnight Journal had something about ESL classes at a local church:

When leaders of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of the North Hills considered holding English-language classes for foreign-born local residents, they had no idea what the response might be.

"We were scared about what we were getting into," said John Russell, the director of the program for the church in Ross Township.

Yet church members wanted to help immigrants who might be feeling lost with just limited command of English.

Fifty students attended the first class in September, and the planning committee was "overwhelmed," said Russell, of Ross. When 60 came the next week, members were ecstatic. All told, 85 students registered.

During the last class of the season in May, organizers were certain their idea had been a good one, as the large meeting room filled with the aromas of an international food court. Study was over, and it was time for celebration with students contributing home-country favorites to the ethnic dinner.

The room buzzed with sounds of growing friendships; the English-as-a-second-language, or ESL, classes had become more than lessons for future conversations.

"We're very thankful, and we're amazed," said the Rev. Harry Metzger of McCandless, pastor of the church.

"It's been such a delight. The students are so friendly, kind, appreciative. Some don't want to break for summer."

The plan to create "a family atmosphere and a place to love these people," in Metzger's words, had been a success.

More information about the ESL classes on the church's website.

Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Spring Show, June 2nd and 3rd.

The Pittsburgh Bonsai Society will hold its annual Spring Show at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside's Mellon Park (map) on June 2nd and 3rd. The group's official site reads:

The public is welcome to visit our annual Spring Show at the Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 (not Phipps Conservatory) on Saturday, June 2 from 10:00 to 5:00 PM, and Sunday, June 3 from 10:00 to 4:00 PM. The free event highlights the work our members put into developing these small works of art. Visitors can purchase trees, starter material, tools, pots and accessories in our vendor area. Visitors can also bring in their own trees for expert styling and care advice. There will be tree styling demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 AM. Visitors can participate in a workshop styling their own tree (Procumbens nana juniper or Scots Pine) for a $25 fee on Saturday at 1:00 PM. A Sunday workshop featuring a tropical tree will also be available, with details to come.

Japanese animated film Summer Wars in Dormont on Sunday, May 27.

The 2009 Japanese animated film Summer Wars (サマーウォーズ) will be playing at Dormont's Hollywood Theater (map) on Sunday, May 27th, at 2 pm and 4 pm. The synopsis from the movie's North American site reads:

Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, bad with girls, and spends most of his time hanging out in the all-powerful, online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiancée at her family reunion. Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI intent on using the virtual word of OZ to destroy the real world, literarily. As Armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit in this “near-perfect blend of social satire and science fiction.”

North Korean volumes in University of Pittsburgh library.

1972 film The Flower Girl.

The latest edition of Pitt magazine (not available online yet) has an interesting blurb about the growing collection of North Korean materials in the East Asian Library. It reads:

What do students in North Korea learn in school? How do books published in North Korea portray history, archaeology, literature, and other topics? Answers may be found in a special Pitt library collection that is among the largest repositories of primary source materials in the United States for scholars studying North Korea. Books, journals, and films from the insular country are hard to come by, but the head of Pitt's East Asian Library, Hong Xu, has cultivated agreements with libraries at Yanbian University near the Chinese-North Korean border and other institutions to obtain materials on behalf of Pitt. The collection contains more than 14,000 volumes and continues to expand.

A longer profile ran in the University Times last summer.

Given that many resources are available in digital form, the library aims to collect unique items, Xu said. “Students and faculty are more interested in getting hard-to-find materials and primary sources,” she said. Pitt’s collection has 82 different North Korean journal titles totaling more than 2,000 volumes, as well as some 400 North Korean books. The publications include pictorial journals that document current events and achievements, arts journals and publications by the nation’s medical science press.

Topics include history, archaeology, literature, economics and politics.

The collection also includes a dozen textbooks, including elementary school, high school and college-level texts. There is even a documentary on North Korean taekwondo.

You can find a list of Korean-language items on this EAL page, including a sizable list of movies.

City Paper reviews Aseoma.

The Pittsburgh City Paper visited Aseoma, sort-of a Koreanish fusion restaurant on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill that specializes in Korean tacos. Restaurant reviews are often painful to read, but here's an excerpt:

[S]ince Aseoma is a full-fledged restaurant, Korean tacos were not all we had. Aseoma has extended its fusion efforts in several directions. For instance, it offers wings and sliders that, like the tacos, are made with distinctively Korean components. Rounding out the menu are some more authentically Asian street foods, such as dumplings and seafood cakes, and a selection of noodle- and rice-based entrees in a variety of Asian styles, from Chinese stir-fries to Thai-inspired curries.

I've been looking forward to this place for a while, especially if the fried 만두 is as good as the pictures make it seem. (Before you fixate too much on the "Korean" in "Korean tacos," though, here's an amusing blog post on this sort of overhyped "Korean" food.) Aseoma is next door to Green Pepper, a trendy but expensive Korean place that opened last year. As I wrote in March, there's almost a little Koreatown growing in Squirrel Hill: there's a small grocery, a Korean bakery, and a pair of Korean restaurants.

Before Aseoma last year, the space was occupied by Chopsticks, another Asian restaurant that advertised its daily specials in foreign languages. For a long time, though, I figured it was just a front for some low-level Chinese gang that ran the local massage parlor: the windows were (and still are) very darkly tinted, and I never saw any customers in or around.

Chopsticks in 2008, doing its best to hide from customers.

This City-Paper review is positive, and other reviews online are pretty good, too, although I've heard talk of frustration among friends of Green Pepper that another Korean place opened right next to it. That part of town has had a lot of turnover recently---recent departures include a Libyan restaurant, a Middle Eastern restaurant, and an Argentinean Cafe, while two new bakeries and a curry place are among the additions---so we'll see how much staying power Aseoma has.

Raising money for the Korean Heritage Room in the Cathedral of Learning.

A rendering of the proposed Korean Heritage Room to go in room 304 in the University of Pittsburgh's Catherdal of Learning.

For years there has been talk of creating a Korean Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning to join the 29 already there. Recently there have been renewed fundraising efforts to hopefully get construction started in 2013 and to have it open by 2014. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from March has some more information. The Korean Heritage Room Committee has a webpage, but their Twitter feed says it won't be ready until mid-May. It's not ready yet, but I've reprinted some information from a brochure in order to fill in the gaps:

Dear Korean Community Members and Friends of Korea,

As you may know, the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh is a historic landmark which receives the utmost admiration locally as well as internationally.

One of its unique features is that it serves the home of 29 Nationality Rooms, each exhibiting its own cultural heritage using various historic renderings and artworks and thus serves as tangible, permanent "ambassadors" of the represented nations.

In 2007, the University of Pittsburgh approved the installation of the Korean Heritage Room (KHR) and recently reorganized the KHR Committee has been diligently planning for the project.

An extimated cost of the project is $650,000 and thus far we have secured about $340,000 from the gnerous contribution from the Korean community, the Korean Foundation and Poongsan Incorporation of Korea. Additional grants are expected from Korea but we still have to raise substantial amounts of funds to complete the rom.

In parallel of the fund-raising effort, we are in the process of finalizing the design created by the Korean architects.

The design of the KHR is faithfully based on our historic academic institution, Sungkuenkwan. The room wil be equipped with a state-of-the-art audiovisual system including an interactive touch screen LCD monitor. Thus through this endeavor, we will have an opportunity to showcase our splendid 5000-year history and cultural image, as well as the intellectual and economic prosperity of South Korea.

The timeline of our project requires that our fund-raising be done by the end of 2012 in order for set completion of construction in 2013, and dedication in 2014. Although the task seems ambitious, it can only be possible with your support.

The brochure then says if you would like to donate, you may send a check made payable to the University of Pittsburgh to

Professor Sangyeun Cho
Computer Science Department
University of Pittsburgh
5415 Sennott Square
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

The plan is to turn room 304 into a Korean Heritage Room that reflects the era of Sungkyunkwan University's early years (the school was founded in 1398). Classroom space is at a premium now at the university, and because these Nationaliy Rooms are often more form than function that could be an obstacle. Nevertheless it will be an excellent addition to the building, a sign of the slow-but-sleady growth of the Korean-language program at Pitt, a reflection of the city's growth beyond the better-known European immigrant communities to a more modern reality.

Language exchanges and conversation partners in Pittsburgh.

There are a good number of free language classes in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Libraries: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, English as a Second Language, among others (search events on the CLP webpage for details). If you're looking for one-on-one exchanges, or just want to chat with someone from a different country, many local universities and language institutes run language exchange and conversation partner programs to help their international students share quality time with native English speakers, time that can be surprisingly hard to come by. A new semester means renewed need for conversation partners, and if you're in Pittsburgh you can contact the University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute or Duquesne University's ESL program.

Schools in other areas have these outreach programs, too, so Google around. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, and the University of Pennsylvania come to mind. It's a great way to help someone new to your city and to make a meaningful experience for both of you.

Pittsburgh International Folk Festival opens tomorrow.

The 2012 Pittsburgh International Folk Festival opens tomorrow, May 18th and runs through the 20th at the Monroeville Convention Center. Long a Pittsburgh tradition, this is the festival's 55th year. Tickets are $12 at the door.

Nothing personal against Monroeville---but the rotten traffic situation might make it personal---but this festival needs to be downtown or in Oakland. No doubt it moved east to avoid the nuisance and cost of the union-run David Lawrence Convention Center, but how great would it be to have the folk festival right next to the Strip District, or in among the universities in Oakland? Or to have as its neighbor the International Children's Festival running right now in Schenley Plaza?

Pennsylvania, other states, say no to Korean shellfish.

As reported by Philadelphia's CBS affiliate, among others, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is advising consumers to discard Korean shellfish. Their May 16th press release reads:

The state departments of Agriculture and Health today advised Pennsylvanians to immediately discard and not consume any fresh or frozen shellfish from Korea due to a recent report from the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying these products may be contaminated.

While the FDA has not issued an official recall, states have been advised to treat Korean shellfish products as coming from an unapproved source. The shellfish products came from polluted waters and may cause illness. This includes oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops, but does not include canned shellfish products.

The Department of Agriculture has alerted all shellfish facilities. These are food establishments that include a building, or vehicle maintained, used or operated for the purpose of commercially manufacturing, processing, storing, or distributing shellfish products for human consumption.

As an added precaution, food sanitarians have advised restaurants and food retailers across the state during routine inspections that all fresh and frozen Korean shellfish products are considered adulterated and must not be consumed.

Consumers who have fresh or frozen shellfish products labeled with Korea as the country of origin should return or discard the product immediately.

To date, no illnesses related to Korean shellfish or shellfish products have been reported to the Department of Health or any local health departments in the state.

Similar warnings have turned up in other states throughout the country. The advisory will be most relevant to consumers who: (1) frequent Asian groceries, restaurants, and buffets; and (2) put any stock in these blanket advisories in the first place.

Silk Screen Asian Film Festival opens tonight.

Pittsburgh's 2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival opens this evening with The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi. The festival will run through May 20th, with 24 films at three venues throughout Pittsburgh: the Regent Square Theater, the Harris Theater, and the Melwood Screening Room. You can download a visitors' guide here, as well as get a list of movies with trailers. Highlights include India's Shala, Japan's Chronicle of my Mother, and the Philippines' Woman in the Septic Tank.