Monday, March 30, 2009

Studying Japanese

Every morning before the work day begins, Bob, Todd and Jon get together to study Japanese.
In addition to just wanting to learn the language, there is another reason for these classes. Todd will soon be leaving on May 6th to serve a two-year mission in Tokyo, Japan for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been preparing for many years and his mission is entirely self funded. We are excited for his new venture and want to help him in his preparations. Todd was born in Japan and his family moved to Hawaii when he was 5 years old. He was perfectly fluent in Japanese for a five year old. "The Japanese language is ingrained in me, although when I don't use it, I lose it. These lessons are helping me to recall and rebuild my language skills," he said.

Bob lived in Japan for 10 years and has taught Japanese language classes at both private schools and at a public college in the U.S.. He wrote a college-level conversational Japanese textbook that has been used in both high school and college classes. His experience and background are very helpful in teaching Todd and Jon.
Jon's interest in learning Japanese was sparked when he traveled to visit our factories in Japan in 2006. He feels understanding the language will help him communicate more clearly in business interactions.
p.s. to Todd. Don't worry. We'll hold your job open for you.

1 comment:

  1. My husband and I have been "playing" with learning Japanese for about a year. I say "playing" because we get pretty intense for a couple of months and then life gets in the way and Japanese practice gets pushed to the side. I like the idea of starting the day with the lesson followed by some quilting. If I start with quilting, before I know it it's lunch time and no language would be learned! My husband wants to go to Japan to teach English as a second language and I want to study applique at a school I learned about from a friend of ours. Good luck Todd!

    ReplyDelete