Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Japanese Board Game event at CMU, February 27.


via sbszine.

The Japanese Student Association at Carnegie Mellon University will present Japanese Board Games on Friday, February 27. From the event's Facebook page:
Join Japanese Student Association at CMU for Japanese mahjong, go, and other traditional games!

There will be people who will happily teach you how to play any of the games -- and we'll have information slips on how to play!
The event starts from 4:30 pm in 5415 Wean Hall (campus map).

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

"'Radical' Thinking about Character Recognition: The structure of the Chinese orthography and its ramifications" at Pitt, February 26.



The Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh will present M.A. candidate Frank Dolce and his talk "'Radical' Thinking about Character Recognition: The structure of the Chinese orthography and its ramifications" on February 26. The abstract:
Previous research has examined cross-linguistic importance of phonological and morphological awareness in Chinese and English word recognition, yet few studies have focused on the earlier, pre-lexical aspects of character recognition and evaluated why orthographic awareness is central to Chinese literacy development. Comparing spread of lexical activation between orthographic, phonologic and semantic stores in English and Chinese reading have helped to specify the lexical pathways underlying character decoding and reading comprehension as part of word recognition. The visual orthographic complexity and coarse form-form mappings of the logographic character system, considered in conjunction with the observations of the Lexical Constituency Model and other reading research, suggests that Chinese pre-lexical processing is exclusively orthographic and threshold-based. Sub-character radicals are decomposed sub-lexical (but not “pre-lexical”) representations and are utilized in unfamiliar reading (based on radical frequency and regularity,
and other factors). Radical parts are only accessed after orthographic lexical representations are already assembled, meaning their access involves top-down morpho-orthographic decomposition. The first study proposal uses two character recognition training tasks to examine the pre-lexical processing pathway that leads to the perceptual assembly of lexical orthographic representations. Beginning with the basic premise that the semantic cues provided by radical parts also contribute to reading of unfamiliar graphic forms, additional studies are proposed comparing the relevance of visual, orthographic and semantic salience of character components in pseudocharacter recall. It is anticipated that graphic and semantic salience of radicals will have independent and additive
effects on recall of unfamiliar forms and both may be able to be incorporated into L2 pedagogies.
The talk is held in room 4217 Posvar Hall (campus map) from 11:00 am and is free and open to the public.

Monday, February 23, 2015

"Law and the Legal Profession in China" at Pitt, February 27 and 28.



The University of Pittsburgh will host the "Law and the Legal Profession in China" conference on February 27 and 28. From the University Center for International Studies:
Over the past two decades the profession of law within China has undergone tremendous change. China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization, massive foreign investment, and an increasingly cosmopolitan middle class have forced both the central government in Beijing and the country’s practicing attorneys to grapple with new clientele, new areas of practice, and an increasingly nuanced popular response to legal issues. This conference will bring together an international panel of multidisciplinary experts to examine the development and current practice of the legal profession in China.
The event is held in the Alcoa Room of the Barco Law Building (map) and is free and open to the public. Registration is required and can be done so by emailing Lynn Kawaratani of the Asian Studies Center at lyk12 at pitt.edu.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Host families still needed for visiting Kobe Gakuin University students next month.

GlobalPittsburgh has sent a reminder that it still needs host families for a cohort of visiting Kobe Gakuin University students in an exchange program at Duquense University next month. An email from Gail Schrott, Director of the International Leaders Program:
GlobalPittsburgh is urgently searching for host families that we need for a program for a group of pharmacy students from Kobe Gakuin University (Japan) who will be participating in an exchange with Duquesne University between March 6 and March 16.

We have a total of 8 female students yet to be placed with host families (out of a total of 18 students). The students, who are between the ages of 18 and 23, will be using bus passes to go to and from their classes and activities. The students will be practicing their English while they are in the city. We are able to provide participating hosts with $150 per student to help offset their expenses for food, etc. Hosts are asked to include the students in their weekend activities, provide breakfasts and dinners on weekdays and also lunches on weekends. The students will be placed in pairs with one student speaking better English than the other so that, collectively, they may communicate more effectively with their hosts. We ask that each student have her own bed; they may share a bedroom or have separate rooms. It is not appropriate to have a student sleeping in a family room or living room on a sofa (where people may walk through). It is okay if the students have to share a bathroom with each other and/or other members of the family. We are able to provide hosts with information about the students' allergies. We have letters to prospective hosts from the students. We ask the hosts to guide their guests to a bus stop location where they may take a bus to the Duquesne campus or to the downtown area where they may then walk to campus.

I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate your consideration of our request. Our colleagues in Japan are extremely eager to learn the names of hosts so that the students may correspond with their homestay hosts in advance of their arrival in Pittsburgh on March 6.

If you are interested in hosting the Japanese medical students please contact me at 412-392-4513 or gshrott@globalpittsburgh.org.

Pittsburgh Taiko Beginners Workshop, February 28.


Performance at the University of Pittsburgh, via Pittsburgh Taiko.

Pittsburgh Taiko will hold its annual Beginners Workshop on February 28 for those interested in learning about Japanese drumming.
Over the course of 2.5 hours, you will learn the basic movements and techniques used to play taiko, as well as learn a starter piece that incorporates these playing techniques.

Drumsticks will be provided, as will earplugs (although you’re welcome to bring your own if you have some).
The event runs from 1:30 to 4:00 pm at Winchester Thurston City Campus Lower School in Shadyside (map), and the cost is $15 for Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania members and students, and $25 for others. Registration is required, and can be done so at the Pittsburgh Taiko website.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Japanese Language Exchange at Kenmawr Apartments, February 22.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will hold its second Japanese language exchange at Kenmawr Apartments---and its third event there this year---on Sunday, February 22. The apartment complex at 401 Shady Ave. (map) has a large number of Japanese residents who work and study in the city, and often hosts cultural events for its international residents. Sunday's event runs from 2 to 4 pm.

VSA & CASA Lunar New Year Festival 2015 at Pitt, February 21.



The Vietnamese Student Association [VSA] and the Chinese American Student Association [CASA] at the University of Pittsburgh will present Lunar New Year 2015 Festival tomorrow night, February 21. The Facebook event page lists the performances:
YanLai Dance Academy
CASA performances
VSA performances
Steel Dragon Dance
Fashion Show
and the menu:
VSA: Hunan Bar - General Tso’s Tofu, Orange Chicken, and Scallion Pancake
CASA: Golden Palace Buffet - General Tso's, Green beans, Lo mein, Fried & white rice
The event runs from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (campus map) and is free.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Speaking English is the hardest thing, says Jung-ho Kang.

Speaking English is the hardest thing, Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jung-ho Kang told Sports Seoul on Wednesday, but it's a problem he says he has to work through.
“영어로 말하는 게 가장 어렵다. 그러나 당연히 내가 극복해야 할 문제다”라고 했다.
The Pittsburgh Pirates website continues:
The language barrier is the most obvious difficulty facing Kang -- [interpreter Jae] Han sat beside him at his locker Wednesday morning -- but his teammates have been doing their best to work around it.

"They're trying to use the easy words, so everything's good," Kang said, laughing. "I can talk with them."

Chinese artist Yun-fei Ji to lecture at CMU, February 24.


Man-eating Animals, 2009

The Carnegie Mellon School of Art will present Chinese artist Yun-fei Ji (季云飞) on February 24 as part of its Spring 2015 Lecture Series. The school profiles Je:
Yun-Fei Ji’s art addresses social change and geological climates using the political forum of the scroll, an ancient art form of ink and mineral pigment on silk and paper. In 2002, he made his first reference to the theme of mass displacement and environmental cataclysm in Three Gorges Dam Migration, a series of woodblock-printed hand scrolls depicting flooding and social upheaval triggered by the creation of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
The talk begins at 5:00 pm in Kresge Theater (map), and is free and open to the public.

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) at Hollywood Theater, February 21 and 22.



The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on February 21 and 22. A summary by the distributor:
The moon is approaching dangerously close to Earth! Unless something is done, the moon will disintegrate, showering the earth with gigantic meteorites. As the clock ticks towards the end of the world, can Naruto save the earth from this crisis? The final chapter of Naruto's story unfolds!

Naruto has become one of the most popular and recognizable anime and manga series in the United States, with the manga volumes frequently appearing on the New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers List and the Naruto Shippuden anime ranked as one of the top three anime series by the Los Angeles Times. With over 683 chapters and 367 anime episodes and more to come, Naruto continues to be a pillar in the US’s anime and manga culture.
The Last will premiere in the US on February 20. Tickets for the two Pittsburgh shows are now available online. Both screenings are in Japanese with English subtitles, and guests will receive free mini-posters while supplies last.

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

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