The 7th Australia – Japan Student Film Forum was held on Monday 8 December, screening a selection of fantastic short films from emerging filmmakers from Japan and Australia. The event was a huge success with a near capacity crowd enjoying the display of young filmmaking talent on offer and voting for the audience choice award. Congratulations to the award winners in the following three categories:

In this issue, we would like to suggest speech making as a classroom activity or classroom project for the year 2009. As you know, the Japan Foundation, Sydney conducts a speech contest every year in co-operation with the committees of each state. The object of this contest is not only to encourage competition between students or schools but also to increase students’ Japanese proficiency, intercultural competence and thinking skills through the process of creating a speech. Full details online, click here

In 2009, The Japan Foundation, Sydney will conduct two new national Nihongo events for school students. They are ‘Art Speaks Japanese Comes Alive: Art Contest’ and ‘Japanese Video Festival’. We are looking forward to your entries.

As part of the JENESYS program, the Japan Foundation, Japan is inviting teachers of Japanese from East Asian countries to participate in a 2 month training program at our Urawa Institute, Japan. The program will commence on May 20, 2009 and finish on July 17, 2009, all costs including airfares will be covered by the Japan Foundation.

2008 Winners video uploaded!
Videos of winners from each division of the national speech contest 2008 have been uploaded on our Speech contest website. Please view them here.

2008 National Speech Contest DVD is now available at the JF, Sydney library
We have created a DVD of the 2008 national speech contest which can be borrowed from our library. For more information, please contact our librarian at library@jpf.org.au

2008 video entries uploaded!

Video works submitted by students have been uploaded to our web gallery.

Take a look here.

North Sydney Girls High School Award Presentation!

Awards from the Art Gallery of NSW and The Japan Foundation, Sydney were given to the North Sydney Girls’ High School students in recognition of their amazing efforts for this year’s contest. Our language consultants Cathy Jonak and Koji Matsumoto recently visited the school to present the awards.

To check the results of the art contest, click here

Contest Entries on Display at the School Screening at the Japanese Film Festival

NSW school students who attended the special screening of Hula Girls during the 12th Japanese Film Festival were treated to an impressive display of some of the 2008 Art Speaks Japanese Comes Alive! Contest artworks.
We hope students were inspired for next year’s contest!

From 2009 we will offer a Japanese writing course for teachers. This course was originally devised and managed by the past Japanese Language Advisers at the Queensland LOTE Centre.
For more information about this writing course, please click here.

The heart-warming film Hula Girls was thoroughly enjoyed by NSW students who attended the Japanese Film Festival. Students were interviewed in Japanese after the film and their response was unanimous, とても　よかったです。
To hear an interview, click here.

The Prize Donation Program was developed by the Japan Foundation, Sydney to support schools staging any kind of Japanese language-related event. Assistance is provided in the form of donations of small prizes, such as Japanese books or magazines, stationery, and other small goods to a value of $100.

Past prize donations have been made to schools in all areas of Australia, assisting urban and rural schools with events such as speech contests, LOTE days, cultural days, hiragana writing competitions, and a lot more.

Eligible schools are primary or secondary schools with an established Japanese language program.

Further information online or contact the Japanese Language Dept on (02) 8239 0077, email donation@jpf.org.au .

Oiwai : Kunishige Tomomi ēkanji sakuhinshū = Congratulation / Kunishige Tomomi.
Tōkyō : Tokimeki Paburisshingu, 2007.
ISBN: 4-04-894551-3
Call# : 728.216 KUN

Ee-Kanji is a concept developed by the author, Tomomi Kunishige, whereby English letters are embedded in the calligraphy of a Japanese Kanji character to give it the same meaning whether it is read in English or Japanese. Following the Kanji character’s stroke order reveals the embedded English alphabet to the viewer.

The Library’s opening days for January - February are as follows:

Opening hours:
Mon-Fri (except Wed): 11.00 am - 5.30 pm
Wed: 11.00 am - 6.00 pm
Sat (every third week): 11.00 am - 4.00 pm
Sun: Closed

There is a book returns chute at the library entrance.  It is available during the Chifley Plaza building operation hours:
Mon-Fri: 6.30 am - 10.00 pm
Sat : 8.30 am - 10.00 pm
Sun/Public Holidays: Closed

The Inoue Yasushi Award for Outstanding Research in Japanese Literature in Australia is awarded to the best refereed journal article or book chapter published in English during the previous year by a researcher based in Australia. The recipient will receive $1000 as well as a certificate of the award’s conferral.

Inoue Yasushi was a prominent post-Second World War novelist and poet. He was a unique writer who managed to combine serious themes with fascinating and intriguing plots.

Applications for the 2009 award should be submitted by Sunday, 15 February 2009. Submissions should be sent to the Chair of the award selection committee, Dr Yasuko Claremont, at the following mailing address: Japanese Studies, School of Languages and Cultures A18, University of Sydney, NSW 2006; or email: yasuko.claremont@usyd.edu.au

Full details online

The annual International Japanese English Translation conference (IJET) was established by the Japan Association of Translators (JAT) in 1990 and has since evolved into a highly successful event that brings together language practitioners from all over the world.

The next conference, IJET-20, will be held in Sydney on 14-15 February 2009 and is shaping up to become a very special event, including a welcome from the Consul-General of Japan in Sydney and a keynote speech by social anthropologist Dr Fiona Graham.

For full details, visit the following websites:
http://ijet.jat.org/en/ijet-20 (English);
http://ijet.jat.org/jp/ijet-20/ (Japanese).

Since the 12th century, The Tale of Genji has inspired Japanese artists to visualise the fascinating world of the story’s main character the Shining Prince (Hikaru Genji) in countless hand scrolls, folding screens, hanging scrolls and albums.
This exhibition features about 70 works drawn from the Gallery’s collection as well as loans from other Australian major public and private collections of Japanese art and aims to show the imaginative power of Japanese artists in adapting the classical theme on various media.

Kodô, hailing from Sado Island, is Japan’s most internationally renowned performing arts group, having given over 3100 performances on all five continents since their inception in 1981.

TaikOz is Australia’s premiere taiko ensemble, having established a unique Australian repertoire.

For the first time ever, Kodô and TaikOz combine forces to present an evening of dynamic drumming, spectacular dance and beautiful song.