JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop: Part 2
Blogs, Career, Networking, Uncategorized 
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Update:
I ran the second “JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop” last Wednesday evening, April 29 in the back of Cosi on 31st & Park, not knowing quite what to expect. It turned out to be a lot of fun and everyone found it helpful and productive. (Click here to read about the first one.)
- We covered the basics of blogs (what they’re good for; advantages and disadvantages of WordPress, Blogspot, Blogger, etc.; posts vs. pages; using RSS feeds) as well as some more advanced topics (driving traffic; creative strategies; adding users). By the time we were done, everyone had set up their own blog and was ready to go.
- The attendees included two translators and three people who had started their own businesses. One of the translators wanted to create a forum for his writing. The other translator was inspired by the discussion of blogs at the JET Alumni Author Showcase (where Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06) and Rob Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) all discussed how they resisted at first but now are glad they followed their publishers’ suggestions to start blogs.)
- One of the JET alum entrepreneurs, Adrienne Smith (CIR Tochigi-ken, 1997-99), founder of Harlem Hip-Hop Tours (www.h3tours.com), said she had been thinking of starting a blog to help promote her tour business but had been holding herself back and appreciated the workshop because it lifted the “technology fog” for her.
- Frank Luo (Fukuoka-ken, 1997-99), a Chinese-English translator, said afterwards, “It was really helpful… An efficient walk through on the mechanics of how to start a blog and why do it on WordPress, plus a few other useful bits of information. We also floated a few ideas on how to expand the scope of the workshops to make them more helpful to aspiring writers as well as those who are trying to promote their business through blogs.” (Frank, by the way, brought a nifty little netbook, which we all sat around and marveled at for 5 minutes.)
- Additionally, Friend of JET (FOJ) Jon Hills, a more experienced blogger who writes the J-News Mini-Roundup column for JetWit and also writes a blog for Hills Learning, a NY-based Japanese language learning services company he started, came to help out and also share a few new tricks (like adding blog functionality to a WindowsLive-based website). He said afterwards he really appreciated having a chance to meet other people running businesses in a setting where everyone was working together towards a common goal.
Going forward
I’ll likely do one or two more blog workshops at Cosi or, if the weather’s nice, perhaps in Bryant Park after work one day. If you’d like to be notified of future workshops, please feel free to contact me at professional [at] jetaany [dot] org.
Looking ahead, it would be nice for the “workshop” to evolve into a monthly “meetup” for JET alums and FOJs at beginner, advanced and in-between levels to spend some time working together, sharing experiences and tips and, of course, helping beginners learn to get started and have an opportunity to ask all the same “dumb” questions that I’ve asked along the way.
Additionally, for readers outside the NYC area, it would be great for people to get JET alum blog workshops going in other areas. It’s a useful career tool and also a nice way to bring people together.
J-News Mini-Roundup: Japan’s Children are Disappearing
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J-News Mini-Roundup is a recurring feature written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com). Hills Learning is a NY-based language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese language learning options.
Background: May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan, the day to celebrate the youth and energy of the country. Local inhabitants hang large carp streamers outside their houses called koinobori, which represent famous warriors and other heroes recognizable to children.
Unfortunately, Japan’s population is shrinking and getting older. The Statistics Bureau on May 4th published their annual estimate of the population of children in Japan. The newspapers reported the news. (please note “children” are identified as 14 or younger).
Asahi “And the prefecture with the least children is…” The Asahi reported that from last year there has been a decrease of 11,000 children. This sounds alarming, but even more so is their dismal statistic that the population of children has been decreasing for 28 years in a row since 1982.
They then split the statistics by prefecture (drum roll please). The prefecture with the most children is Okinawa, while the prefecture with the least children is…
(Click HERE to read the rest of the post)
Writing Opportunity: YouMaga
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JETAA Pacific Northwest Treasurer and Webmaster Shun Endo found the below writing opportunity for JET alums in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere:
I met with the owner of YouMaga (www.youmaga.com) a while back, and she was interested in starting a new column for her magazine in the next month or two. The monthly article would be a short story written by a JET alumnus about a HUMOROUS experience they had in Japan. Something that would highlight cultural understanding, or misunderstanding! :P The great thing is that it will be a very short piece, only about two or three paragraphs in length. Very concise and simple and easy to write! The alumnus whose article is selected will have their photo and bio next to their story. It’s a fun way for PNW JETAA to be introduced to the Japanese speaking community. Maybe next time you go shopping at Uwajimaya, an obachan will ask you for an autograph?
If you are interested, first write me and tell me that you are interested, and then write a two or three paragraph story. The article will be printed in Japanese, but you can write it in English for them to translate. Or, if you want to practice your Japanese writing skills, feel free to do so, since the editor will fix any mistakes. I encourage all of you to share your funny experiences with the Seattle Japanese community! Hope to hear from you. We need one story for each month, so send many of them in! Also, send a pic and bio information:
Biography
Name:
JET Program (Years and Location):
Profession and/or interests:
Favorite japanese thing:
Baker’s Dozen by Eric Baker
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Eric Baker (Fukuoka-ken, 2006-08) will be writing the Baker’s Dozen column as he approaches the end of a year of travel and reconnecting. He will discuss his thoughts and experiences as he transitions back to working in the States after two years on JET.
Like many folks, I discovered JetWit through a JET friend. Joining the Facebook group, I began exchanging messages with Steven, our prescient leader, who suggested I start writing a few posts about my life as I, too, join the increasingly anxious fray of those looking for work. 
You may wonder how it came to pass that I’m starting these posts now, in May. I’m either ahead of the game for an ’09 JET or way behind for the group who finished in the summer of ’08. As you may have guessed, I’m the latter–I took a scenic western route returning from Japan to round out 2008. This year I’ve balanced my time between reading and fitness binges at “home” in Detroit, and with a number of week or two-long stints on the road, reconnecting with my diaspora of American friends, seeing how they live.
So far I’ve found value through the ups and downs of my deliberately gradual reentry. But while my old friends are well on their varied roads to success, evidenced in their shapely Apple and Ikea products and the flatscreen TV pandemic (when did that happen?), I turn 25 tomorrow, am living with my parents, and am increasingly in need of that pension refund. I check my account most days for that deposit, and in the meantime my 0% American Express keeps me afloat. But with my Nokia prepaid phone, goodwill cutlery and non-HD compatible 27″ JVC, I’m clinging to the fringes of social acceptance.
In fits and starts, I’m making the inevitable transition to commence thinking about and searching for my next job. I’ve missed most grad school deadlines, so that is eliminated for now. But most everything else is up in the air. Like my friends, I’m happy to move since—my pride in the Great Lakes (五大湖, anyone?) and ability to use my right hand as a map of my state aside—finding work in Michigan isn’t realistic right now. And for better or worse, I sometimes feel more socially isolated being temporarily back “home” than I did in my inaka hamlet. I’m becoming antsy to really Read More
SWET Kansai Presents: Three poets in Japan (Kyoto)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (Kansai) presents:
Three Poets in Japan
Time: Sunday 17th May 2009 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Place: Venture Dream Office 2nd Floor Meeting Room (2 minutes from Hankyu Karasuma Station and Shijo Subway Station)
Fee: 500 yen for members and 1,000 yen for non-members
Reservations can be made through e-mail.
Yoko Danno, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, and Keiji Minato will discuss writing in both English and Japanese, translating and publishing poetry, and will also read their poetry.
Yoko will talk about why she started writing poetry in English more than forty years ago, and how she became interested in the roots and beginnings of Japanese culture and literature, especially the customs, imagery, thoughts and feelings of the folklore recorded in the Fudoki and the Kojiki compiled in the 8th century. Yoko will read some of her poems and translations.
SWET Presents: Writing Multicultural Families (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Writing Multicultural Families
Time: Saturday, May 16, 2009, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Place: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Fee:
Panel discussion and dinner: 5,000 yen (includes makunouchi bento meal) – Reservations required by May 12; email SWET Events or SCBWI Events, or fax 03-3430-1740
Panel discussion only: 2,000 yen, no reservations required, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Suzanne Kamata, editor of the literary anthology Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, May 2009), will be accompanied by Leza Lowitz, Holly Thompson and Angela Turzynski-Azimi in reading from and discussing contributions to the book. Call Me Okaasan comprises twenty essays by women writers around the world on the joys and challenges of raising children across two or more cultures. A panel Q&A with all four writers will wrap up the event. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event.
See the URL below for additional details:
http://www.swet.jp/index.php/events/
SWET Presents: Behind Cloistered Walls: On Translating the Memoirs of an Imperial Convent Abbess (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Behind Cloistered Walls: On Translating the Memoirs of an Imperial Convent Abbess
Time: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 3:00 – 8:00 pm
Place: Tankiro Hanten
Fee: 5,000 yen (includes dinner)
RSVP by May 16 (indicate if you require a vegetarian meal)
Bringing to English readers a story of life in the imperial convents of Kyoto long hidden behind cloister walls, this event introduces the just-published bilingual publication, In Iris Fields (Tankosha, 2009). Author Kasanoin Jikun’s story evokes a world where the past-of Heian (Tale of Genji) splendor, imperial dynasties (daughters of emperors were trained to become abbesses), the upheaval of the Meiji Restoration and the wrenching move of the capital to Tokyo (when the very livelihood of Imperial convents and monasteries was in jeopardy)-as if it were yesteryear.
SWET Presents: Writing News on Japan: With Journalist Elaine Lies (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Writing News on Japan: With Journalist Elaine Lies
Time: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Place: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Fee: 5,000 yen (to include evening meal)
Reservations required by June 19; email SWET events, or fax 03-3430-1740
Whether geisha or anime, samurai or electronics, Japan still remains a fascinating place for much of the world, and papers will pay for stories. As a 20-year resident of Japan who has been writing about the country for most of that time, both freelance and as a reporter for Reuters news agency, Elaine Lies has a few ideas about what kinds of stories will work, as well as those that might not.
Elaine Lies studied Asian Studies at Cornell and UC Berkeley before coming to Japan, where she has lived in the rural north as well as in Tokyo. With experience as a general news reporter covering earthquakes, prime ministers, anime, whaling, and just about anything else you can imagine, she has stories to tell and perspectives to share.
See URL below for more details:
http://www.swet.jp/index.php/events/
Job: Outreach/Communications Coordinator for Asian/Pacific Studies (Duke U.)
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Great job listing via JETAA Pacific Northwest, somewhat ironically (they’re great with the job postings):
Job Title: Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University
The Asian/Pacific Studies Institute has an opening for the position of Outreach and Communications Coordinator. This will be a 30 hour/week
position with benefits, with the potential of upgrading to a 40 hour/week position. The position is classified as Program Coordinator, Level 10, Job Family 28 in the Duke system.
Job Responsibilities:
Serve as the outreach coordinator of APSI: Read More
JOB: Middle School Teacher (Milwaukee)
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(Job posting by Barry Greene (Yamanshi-ken 2002-05)).
Milwaukee Renaissance Academy wants teachers for the core subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic. They are also actively pursuing language teachers for JAPANESE, Mandarin, Arabic, and Hindi. Position starts by August 1st, 2009.
http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Job/330341-126
JOB: Language Lead- i.e. lead of an interpreting team (Yoyogi, Tokyo)
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(Job posting by Barry Greene (Yamanshi-ken 2002-05)).
One of the job agencies in Tokyo is advertising for someone to lead a translation/interpreting team.
http://jobs.japantimes.jp/company/LYT1038/703/recruit.html
JOB: Bilingual Architect/Project Manager (Atlanta)
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(Job posting by Barry Greene (Yamanshi-ken 2002-05)).
A construction company has Japanese clients and English-speaking vendors: sounds like the perfect place for a JET.
Candidate must possess: Read More
JOB: Customer Service Rep with a Logistics Firm (Memphis)
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This company makes a lot money moving around inventory and storing boxes for companies- a lot of money. If you’re Japanese is pretty good and live in the south- give them a shout.
(Job posting by Barry Greene (Yamanshi-ken ’02-’05)).
Roland Kelts on Sakura-Con: Yomiuri column and podcast
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Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, has a recent Daily Yomiuri column on his experience at Sakura-Con in Seattle in April. You can also listen to a podcast about the event in which he’s interviewed.
Thanks to author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) for sharing this:
The 3rd Annual Japan Writer’s Conference will be held October 17-18, 2009 at Doshisha Women’s College, Imadegawa Campus, Kyoto, Japan. Organizers are now seeking proposals from poets and writers for presentations. First call deadline is May 15, 2009. For more information, see http://www.japanwritersconference.org.
