Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop at Pitt, March 24.

The University of Pittsburgh's School of Education will host the next Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop on Friday, March 24, with Dr. Shuhan C. Wang (王周淑涵) of ELE Consulting International. The event starts at 2:00 pm in 5604 Posvar Hall (map), and is conducted in Chinese.

Ariba hiring bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist (SAP Ariba) for overnight position.

Pittsburgh-based Ariba is again hiring a bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist for an 8:00 pm to 5:00 am shift. An excerpt from the job posting:

The Customer Support Specialist is the face and voice of Ariba to our customers, building relationships in each interaction. Specialists help our customers maximize the benefits of Ariba solutions to facilitate a global exchange of goods and services in the world’s largest business to business trading community. They use their expertise and collaborate with team members and customers across the globe to provide detailed solutions that exceed expectations.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides inbound application and functional support for all relevant Ariba applications, both internally and externally, by way of email, webform and phone.
• Resolves 80% of issues without escalation.
• Respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner and within service level objectives.
• Successfully documents all requests through the CRM system while adhering to all documented procedures.
• Provides general assistance to other teams within Global Customer Support and Ariba.
• Conducts all customer interactions in a manner that presents Ariba in a positive light. Specialists are required to be respectful, fair, gracious and knowledgeable and to uphold the core values established by Ariba.
• Ensures that individual performance meets or exceeds the department standards.
• All other duties as assigned.

Additional details and application information are available on the SAP website.

Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs Town Hall in Pittsburgh, March 25.

The PA Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs will host a Town Hall meeting at the University of Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 25.

Please join the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs for an interactive dialogue. GACAPAA is responsible for serving as the advocate agency in the Commonwealth for our diverse AAPI communities. The Commission wants to hear about the challenges facing the AAPI communities in Greater Pittsburgh and how we can leverage our strengths to effectively advocate, promote resources and best serve our AAPI communities. Space is limited and your participation is critical. Please plan to attend. If you have specific questions or issues you want addressed please e-mail them ahead of time to tlawson at pa.gov.

The event runs from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in room 2700 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public. The required registration can be completed online.

"Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café" at Pitt, April 4.

Via Pitt Magazine.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Anthropology will present a talk by PhD candidate Amanda Robinson, "Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café", on April 4.

This presentation examines how young people in Japan use “animal cafés” to meet their need for sociality. In animal cafés, owners, employees and customers are all involved in constructing a refuge from the social consequences of Japan’s labor market deregulation. I propose that the sociality of the animal café is tied to relaxation and the performance of non-productivity, where visitors can feel connected to others in a public space without having to “work” at interacting. As a business that allows visitors to experience a sense of iyashi (healing) that emerge from non-discursive, relaxing connections with animals, I conceptualize animal cafés as part of the affect economy that is increasingly important as Japanese people turn to the market to meet their emotional needs.

The presentation starts at 1:00 pm in 3106 Posvar Hall (map).

"The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP" at Pitt, March 23.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Kay Shimizu of the Department of Political Science and Patricia Maclahlan of the University of Texas and Austin on March 23 for "The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP".

The joint lecture will discuss how and why policymakers in both the US and Japan that have reacted to the rise and fall of negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The talk starts at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

The Way Home (집으로) at Maridon Museum, March 24.

The Maridon Museum will show the 2002 Korean movie The Way Home (집으로) as the first installment of this spring's Korean Film Series on March 24. A 2002 San Francisco Chronicle review provides a summary:

Dumped by his mother at the rural home of his ancient grandmother, a 7-year- old boy turns surly and depressed. His Game Boy batteries die, Grandma's food tastes strange, and the countryside lacks the vivid distractions of urban life.
Gradually, the spoiled brat (Seung-Ho Yoo) and the deaf, exquisitely patient grandmother (Eul-Boon Kim) grow to love and understand each other. By the time his mother returns to claim him, the boy has learned more from the old woman's gestures of kindness than his mother ever taught him.

The Maridon Museum is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that runs film series periodically throughout the year, in addition to art classes, book club meetings, and its regular exhibits.

"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Basics of Bonsai", March 23.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will present "MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Basics of Bonsai" on March 23.

The pots may be shallow, but bonsai is a deep art form. With origins in Chinese penjing, bonsai has developed in Japan for a thousand years. Past-president of the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Daniel Yobp will give attendees the history, species and design principles of bonsai, followed by a demonstration with a shrub.

It will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Doubletree by Hilton in Cranberry (map). Space is limited and registration is required

Tsunami Punx: The Tōhoku Live House Movement at Row House Cinema, April 9.

Part of the Row House Cinema's 2nd annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival is Tsunami Punx: The Tōhoku Live House Movement, a documentary by Pittsburgh native and 2011 Tohoku earthquake survivor Matthew Ketchum on the tsunami and Japan's underground punk rock scene.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 resulted in one of the most devastating tsunami’s the world has seen. In the aftermath, punk musicians and DIY organizers hailing from three Northern seaside towns formed a collective with the goal of erecting Live Houses amidst the ruin, creating an oasis for communities in defiance of the slow, tedious work of reconstruction.

Thus, the Tohoku Live House Movement was begun. Soon enough, word reached Tokyo of their work, and a group of young filmmakers from Waseda University arrived to document the unlikely but colossal impact of the punk community on the lives of others. Even now, the Movement continues, sharing music & art wherever it is welcome and needed.

Ketchum runs the site Kaala.jp and has a weekly radio show on Sunday afternoons on WRCT 88.3 FM.

The show starts at 4:30 pm and the tickets are now on sale for $6.50. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2015 Korean movie Veteran (베테랑) at Pitt, March 17.

The 2015 Korean movie Veteran (베테랑) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on March 17 as part of the Department of East Asian Language & Literatures' Korean Film Festival. A September 2015 New York Times review provides a summary:

Hwang Jung-min is cool and capable as the longtime detective whose investigation of a friend’s suicide attempt pits him against the conglomerate’s lawyers, thugs and paid-off policemen; he’s a quieter version of the Eddie Murphy or Mel Gibson cop who plays the fool but is good in a fight. The Korean heartthrob Yoo Ah-in plays the preening adversary, whose response to being shown up is to humiliate the nearest woman or assault the nearest pet.

The movie will play from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Japanese Tea Ceremony, March 25 in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library Main Branch will present a Japanese Tea Ceremony with Yuko Eguchi Wright on March 25.

Tea Ceremony of Chado (The Way of the Tea), is a traditional Japanese art involving ritualistic preparation of tea. Influenced by Zen Buddhism philosophy, the core teaching of chado is to attain a spiritual state of selflessness and peacefulness through making and sharing one bowl of tea. Lean the history and philosophy of the Japanese Tea Ceremony while tasting Japanese tea and sweets.
This program is part of the celebration of the NEA Big Read project locally hosted by Gumberg Library at Duquesne University. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. This year’s Big Read is When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka – This story, told from five different points of view, chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.

The event runs from 2:30 to 4:30 in the International Poetry Room and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map).