Shortly after she arrived in this country, Teruko Shiono was given a baby shower by her new friends in Pittsburgh. She has never forgotten that unexpected kindness and has spent the better part of 30 years trying to repay it.She also found time to teach Mr. Rogers and friends how to do origami.
Mrs. Shiono is a one-woman Japanese-American amity committee. When a Japanese woman went into labor at Pittsburgh's Presbyterian-University Hospital, and it developed that the mother-to-be and the doctors couldn't speak to each other, Mrs. Shiono hurried from her Highland Park home to bridge the gap. When Japanese athletes come to town, Mrs. Shiono is always available to whip up some home cooking -- rice, sushi, yakitori. The recorded Japanese voice that describes sights on local tour buses is hers. When the Pittsburgh Opera Theater wanted to stage "Madame Butterfly" it was Mrs. Shiono they turned to, and the costumes were found. And when a Japanese student is homesick in Pittsburgh, the school is likely to give him Mrs. Shiono's number. "They want to talk," she says, "so I listen. It's a Japanese custom -- the older helps the younger. You do what you can. That's the American way too, yes?"
Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形 hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.And the museum writes:
When a little girl is born in Japan they usually are gifted a set of Hina Matsuri dolls. These dolls are to be put up and taken down on March 3rd. If the dolls are not taken down at the end of the evening it could me bad luck for the little girls future.The museum is located at 322 North McKean St in downtown Butler (map), and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.
This Festival is also called "Momo no sekku (Peach Festival)" because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar.
This week, [Argentine college student Jorge] and 14 other foreign students demonstrated outside a McDonald's after filing complaints with the State Department and Labor Department saying they were exploited at fast-food outlets in the Harrisburg, Penn., area and housed in substandard conditions. The students were on a three-month J-1 visa for work and travel.. . .
The students in Harrisburg, including those from Malaysia, China, Peru and Chile, said they were attracted by ads on their university bulletin boards and websites, such as one by a company called Out of the Box Personal Development in Kuala Lumpur, touting "a unique opportunity to live life in the USA—up close and personal!"
Lee Siew Yeen, a director for Out of the Box, said she was surprised by the complaints and would reach out to the students. "There was a housing issue. Other than that they weren't going through anything that was different from other students," she said. "They were pretty happy."
On arrival, the university students were assigned to one of three McDonald's in the Harrisburg area. Some said they were given so few hours that they hardly earned any money after their boss and landlord deducted rent from their paychecks. Others said they were forced to work shifts as long as 25 hours straight without being paid for overtime.
"Since I got to the States, I have been working just to pay to live in a basement," says Mr. Rios, who arrived in mid-December and shares the one-room space with five other foreigners who work at the same outlet. He said he worked about 25 hours a week earning $7.25 an hour and Mr. Cheung, his boss, deducted weekly rent of $75 from his pay.
Since its release this action-comedy-thriller has been lauded for its stunning mix of dark humor and eye-popping violence. Starring Chow Yun-Fat, it's become the highest-grossing film of all time in China. Set in 1920s Sichuan, it tells the tale of the bandit "Pocky" Zhang Mazi, who poses as a local governor in a dusty town, but finds himself at odds with the local mobster, who is not eager to share his turf with another drifter. A complex and deadly series of mind-games ensues between the two crooks, which are as violent as they are hilarious.It will be shown in room 233 Keith Hall (campus map) at 7:00 pm, and is free and open to the public.
The Japanese dance group poses in their costumes and their performance hair and make-up. The 1923 May Day pageant featured a number of episodes from varying cultures and historical traditions. Part I, titled the "Birth of May Day" included dances by the allegorical figures of Night, Dawn, the Sun, and Spring among others. Part II centered on the "Coronation of the May Queen," senior Marion Jobson, and Part III, titled "Entertainment of the Queen," featured a wizard, a Roman Spring procession, an Egyptian episode, a Grecian episode, a Normandy folk dance, an English folk dance, a Japanese episode, “poses from old prints,” and a cherry blossom dance.
As General Douglas MacArthur (Jones) suddenly finds himself the de facto ruler of a foreign nation, he assigns an expert in Japanese culture - General Bonner Fellers (Fox), to covertly investigate the looming question hanging over the country: should the Japanese Emperor, worshiped by his people but accused of war crimes, be punished or saved?The City Paper didn't really care for it--[it] "might have been informative and even provocative, but winds up being a lackluster, unsatisfying affair."---and it's doubtful 100 minutes of pop history will do justice to a question with lingering implications today.
Applicants do not have to have any teaching experience, but they must have earned a bachelor's degree in some field from an accredited university.. . .
Monthly salaries vary by Korean province and the metropolitan area teachers are placed in. [English Program in Korea]'s site shows the minimum salary is about $1,700 per month. Salaries rise for applicants with teaching experience and for those with advanced degrees.
"The benefits of coming here are great. You make a good salary and have good vacation time. EPIK also pays for your plane ticket, gives you starting money and a furnished apartment that is rent-free," [Megan] Rees [of McKees Rocks] wrote in an email interview. "Americans living in Korea pay no taxes for two years and get the pension deductions from their paycheck back when they leave Korea."
EPIK teachers sign a one-year contract and have the option to renew. Giegel [of Observatory Hill] is considering signing on for another year. After two years in South Korea, Rees says she has decided to take a job to teach English in Japan beginning in May.Even before the "Great Recession", teaching English in Asia has been an attractive option for recent college graduates. There are local chapters of the Japan Exchange and Teaching [JET] Programme, and there are numerous blogs by Pittsburghers in South Korea, including Brian in Jeollanam-do (teacher-turned-columnist) and Good for Man's Health (teacher-turned-bar-owner).
"My dream in life is to travel the world and experience living in different cultures," says Rees. "It gives you the [confidence to start] a new life from scratch, and it teaches you the world is bigger than what you have known growing up."
[Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education] and [Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education] emphasized that their programs, both started in 2005, were never meant to last.
The English Program in Korea ― similar to the programs run by Seoul and Gyeonggi and South Jeolla provinces, but run in the rest of Korea ― was started in 1995 to enhance English education, and promote cultural understanding. The NETs would work alongside and train English-proficient Korean teachers, who would eventually replace them.
Seoul said the phaseout was ahead of schedule. It placed NETs in all public schools by 2010, two years earlier than planned, and says its Korean staff’s skills have improved dramatically.
SMOE claimed that 95.6 percent of Korean English teachers had “teaching English in English capacity” by the end of 2011, and began to phase out NETs last year.
GEPIK officials said that while the reductions were planned out, the timing was not. However, they said it was entering the next phase ― handing the classes over to English-proficient Korean teachers.
[Three Times] features three chronologically separate stories of love between May and Chen, set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, using the same lead actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen.The Maridon is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that presents Asian films from particular countries as part of its spring and fall series. Last year it was China and Vietnam. The show starts at 6:30 and is presented by Dr. William Covey of Slippery Rock University.
