An Intercultural Revisitation of the Kindertransport: Jewish Children's Escape from Nazi Camps

Sunday, January 27, 2019 - 3:00pm to 5:30pm

On December 2, 1938 the first refugees from the operation that would be known as Kindertransport arrived in Harwich, U.K. with 196 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been burned by the Nazis during Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass", November 9, 1938). The operation continued to bring Jewish children (including Tina Ottman’s father and his three brothers) to the UK until September 1939, just before World War II broke out.

The feel-good story about Britain’s beneficence to the Jewish children has its dark side, and the presenter believes that the time has arrived for a more critical approach to this famous episode of history. Using documentary clips, including interviews with the presenter’s own father, the presenter will explore how the children often suffered from intense cultural insensitivity, culture shock and trauma, as they were told to forget their religious practices, their mother tongues, and to eat, dream and breathe only in English.

Tina Ottman is an Associate Professor at Doshisha University’s Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, and holds a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford in the UK.

This event is co-sponsored by SIETAR Kansai and will be followed by a dinner party at a nearby restaurant. RSVP by Wednesday, January 23rd, to fujimotodonna@gmail.com

Location: 

Takatsuki Shiritsu Shogai Gakushu Center, 3F Room 1   (8 minutes from JR and Hankyu Takatsuki stations) 072-674-7700 

Venue Address: 

桃園町2番1号

Takatsuki-shi, Osaka〒569-0067 Japan

Speaker: Tina Ottman, PhD, Doshisha University

Fee for JALT members: Free for JALT and SIETAR members and full-time students

Fee for non-JALT members: 500 yen

Contact or Queries

 

Osaka JALT Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Year-end Festivities

Saturday, Dec 8, 10:00 am - 9:00 pm
Event Theme: 

Annual General Meeting (AGM) and year-end festivities

Our Osaka Chapter AGM (Annual General Meeting) is a chance for our officers to report on the past year in our chapter and recent developments in JALT more broadly, discuss officer positions and plans for the coming year, and for members and non-members alike to find out more about the inner workings of our chapter and JALT. This will also be a great chance to share stories about JALT2018 in Shizuoka and discuss other recent happenings.

Osaka JALT members interested in nominating yourself or another member to be an officer in the coming year, please email us at osakajalt@gmail.com by Dec 8, especially if you're not able to attend the AGM.

After our official business meeting from 10:00 am to noon at the Lifelong Learning Center in the Ekimae Dai-2 Building 5F, please join us for lunch at the nearby Istanbul Nazar restaurant even if you aren't able to attend the AGM itself. RSVP by Friday, Dec 7 so we can be sure to reserve enough seats. After lunch, join us for the annual Umeda Snowman Festival and/or some hot spiced wine and German sausages at the German Christmas Market at the Sky Building. Finally, from 6:30 pm, join us for dinner at Le Marrakech Moroccan restaurant with more thought-provoking discussion and cross-cultural culinary delights. And of course there are many options for nijikai in the area for those interested as well.

It's a veritable moveable feast to round off the year! Please join us for any part or parts of the day that you like. RSVP appreciated by Friday, Dec 7.

Location: 

Osaka Municipal Lifelong Learning Center (Umeda), Eki-mae Dai-2 Bldg, 5F, Kenkyushitsu 6

Venue Address: 

大阪市北区梅田1-2-2-500

大阪駅前第2ビル

Osaka, Osaka〒530-0001 Japan

Event Speaker: Chapter officers, members, and everyone welcome

Fee for JALT members: Free

Fee for non-JALT members: 1,000 yen for AGM portion (500 yen for full-time students)

Contact or Queries

4 Corners Tour -- Kansai

Sunday, November 18, 2018 - 10:00am to 12:00pm

The Four Corners Tour presents high-profile speakers from the JALT international conference to the far reaches and "four corners" of Japan each year. Over the past several years, the four Kansai area JALT chapters have collaborated to be sure that some of these presenters from overseas visited us somewhere in Kansai. This year it's Nara's turn to host the main event with two invited speakers presenting versions of their JALT2018 talks tailored towards a more interactive setting. Judith O’Loughlin from the USA will present "Strategies for fostering resilience in young learners", and Thongsouk Keomany (this year's Bill Balsamo Asian Scholar, from Laos) will enliven us with his natural charm, wit and warm heart as he talks about his students, experiences and his work in the English Department at the National University of Laos.

Judith B. O'Loughlin has taught in K-12, adult education, and graduate university TESOL endorsement programs. She consulted and taught for U.S. federal and state grants to train ESL and Special Education teachers. As a consultant, her focus is on standards-based differentiated curriculum, collaborative teaching, and newcomers with interrupted education. She is the author of The Academic Language Accelerator (Oxford) and co-author of Students with Interrupted Formal Education: Where They Are and What They Need (Corwin).

 

Thongsouk Keomany was born in Louangphabang Province, in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. He has studied in Laos, Singapore and Japan and is currently working on his PhD at the University of Malaysia. He works at the National University of Laos, where he has been teaching under- and post-graduate students, for 22 years. He was the Head of the Department of Academic Affairs for several years and now he is the Deputy Head of the English Department in charge of International Programs, the LaoTESOL Co-ordinator, the LAN project Academic Advisor, and a member of the Inclusive Education Committee in the Faculty of Letters. He is also the author of English Language for Lao Students, Books 3-12. These texts are used in all primary and secondary schools throughout Laos. He specializes in planning, evaluation and curriculum design. He believes that the principles and maxims of teaching, from KNOWN to UNKNOWN, can help his learners improve their ability to study, particularly in inclusive classrooms.

If you are unable to make it to JALT2018 in Shizuoka, or even if you are going but wish to see these presenters up close and more personally, then you will not want to miss this special event. If you have time after the presentations, please plan to also join us for lunch and a walk to some of the nearby classic and World Heritage sites of Nara. 

Location: 

Nara Visitors Center and Inn (walkable from both JR and Kintetsu Nara stations)

Venue Address: 

3 Ikeno-cho, Nara, Nara

630 - 8361 Japan

Event Speaker: Judith O’Loughlin and Thongsouk Keomany

Fee for JALT members: Free

Fee for non-JALT members: 1,000 yen

Contact or Queries

Welcome party for Balsamo Asian Scholar Professor Thongsouk Keomany of Laos

Friday, November 16, 2018 - 6:30pm to 10:00pm

Osaka

Event Speaker: 

Thongsouk Keomany (Balsamo Asian Scholar at JALT2018)

Fee for JALT members: 

Free entry

Fee for non-JALT members: 

Free entry

Contact or Queries: 

Send Email

Event Theme: 

Social event and welcome party at Lingua World Cafe

Come join us at Lingua World Cafe in Osaka for a casual welcome party for Professor Thongsouk Keomany of Laos, this year's Balsamo Asian Scholar, an invited speaker at JALT2018. Thongsouk has welcomed many JALT members to Laos over the years, and so we're looking forward to returning some of his hospitality on the day he arrives back in Japan. 

Thongsouk has studied in Laos, Singapore, and Japan, and is currently working on his PhD at the University of Malaysia. He works at the National University of Laos, where he has been teaching under- and post-graduate students for 22 years. He was the Head of the Department of Academic Affairs for several years and now is the Deputy Head of the English Department in charge of International Programs as well as the LaoTESOL Coordinator, the LAN project Academic Advisor, and a member of the Inclusive Education Committee in the Faculty of Letters. He is the author of English Language for Lao Students, Books 3-12, which are textbooks used in all primary and secondary schools throughout Laos. He specializes in planning, evaluation and curriculum design, and believes that the Principles and Maxims of Teaching from NKOWN to UNKNOWN can help learners improve their ability to study, particularly in inclusive classrooms.

Lingua World Cafe is a much loved and very laid back Canadian style place known for it's friendly atmosphere, craft beers, coffees, and sandwiches. It's a short walk from Exit 5 of Tanimachikyuchome metro station or Kintetsu Uehonmachi station. We plan to be there for a few hours from about 6:30 or so, but feel free to join us whenever is convenient, for as long or as short as you have time. To help us and the cafe have a better idea of how many to plan for, please RSVP using this link by Thursday evening. It's sure to be a wonderful evening.

Location: 

Lingua World Cafe

Venue Address: 

大阪市天王寺区生玉前町１－１

上本町ホールドビル1F

Osaka, Osaka543-0072 Japan

Wrongful Convictions and Executions: East & West

Sunday, October 14, 2018 - 2:00pm to 5:00pm 

Wrongful convictions and exonerations continue to dominate the media on both sides of the Pacific. In the minds of the general public, wrongful convictions are due to honest mistakes made in the pursuit of justice. In this session, Fox will challenge this notion and insist that most wrongful convictions, both in Japan and the USA, have been deliberately and maliciously fabricated. There will be three parts to the talk: (1) Fire, death, coerced confession and wrongful conviction: A tale of two countries. Two cases will be reviewed, one in Osaka and one in Delaware (USA), in which coerced confessions led to convictions for arson and murder. The three defendants -- two in Osaka, one in the US -- were all sentenced to life imprisonment. (2) “Women doin' time for men's crimes” The world's prisons are filled with women who have been convicted for crimes perpetrated by men. "If you run with the wolves, you are guilty of the kill" is a maxim embraced by too many police and prosecutors. We will examine cases of women accomplices who were arrested, defied authorities, rejected plea bargains, and are now serving long terms of incarceration. (3) Wrongful Executions Popular support for the death penalty has been decreasing in the United States, but remains high in Japan. We will look at actual cases of wrongful executions in both countries, and one in China. Classroom teachers can use the simple yet highly persuasive materials that will be shared in this section. Michael H. Fox grew up in suburban Detroit, and came to Japan with a backpack in 1979. He spends most of his waking life researching wrongful convictions and the death penalty. He maintains three websites: the Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Information Center (www.jiadep.org), the Women’s Criminal Justice Network (www.wcjn.org), and the Network for Innocent Arson Defendant (www.niad.info). This is, of course, too much work for one person, and at any given time, all three websites may be badly out of date. During the day, he works at Hyogo University in Kakogawa. Zen meditation and seaside walks have helped him maintain sanity…so far. This event is co-sponsored by Kyoto JALT and SIETAR Kansai. The meeting venue is in the Nishinomiya Daigaku Koryu Center (ACTA East Tower 6F, Room 2), 2 minutes from Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi station.

There will be a dinner after the session at a restaurant. Reservations for dinner required by October 10.

Location: 

Nishinomiya Daigaku Koryu Center (ACTA East Tower 6F, Room 2), 2 minutes from Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi station

Venue Address: 

六湛寺町10番3号

Nishinomiya, Hyogo662-8567 Japan

Event Speaker: Michael H. Fox (Associate Professor, Hyogo Univ.)

Fee for JALT members: Free for JALT and SIETAR members and students

Fee for non-JALT members: 500 yen

Contact or Queries