May 2010 Newsletter: Yumi's Monthly Note
Hello Everybody!The month of April was a bit different this year, as we had a mix of very cold and hot weather. The difference in temperature was about 18 degrees centigrade in one day. Despite such weather, we still enjoyed beautiful cherry blossoms, which Kyoto is very famous for. I am pleased to report to you this month that we have successfully started Pangaea Activity at Mapo Youth Culture Center (MYCC), in Seoul, Korea in mid April. With our great partner, Seoul UNESCO MIZY Center's Sophia, we were ready for this exciting occasion. I was quite surprised to see
how big this youth center was, and impressed with the well
equipped facility, which I rarely find in youth centers in Japan or other
countries. I guess Seoul City is starting a budget to enrich youths lives
through facilities like MYCC. TOTO, who will be in charge of running the program
with Sophia, is a very nice woman. We had 9 people take the facilitator
training session, which was run by us.
For MYCC, there were 80 applicants when the program opened, but only room for 25. It is nice to see children coming from many different locations. The children, of course, had a great time, and I found that there were four children who are very interested in Japanese, who can even write and read 'hiragana'!
One issue which we had to deal with was that there were no volunteers with a strong background in computers. Toshi trained two staff members, who must have been very tired after such a long day, to give them extra training on how to operate programs with PangaeaNet and community site, etc.
Prof. Kyoung Jun Lee, who helped Pangaea a great deal by starting the program in Kyung Hee University before we settled at MIZY Center, gave us a reply from UC Berkeley to recommend his Master student as Technical staff for Pangaea. This was a reply to our call for help in seeking a person who can run Webcam activities without Toshi. So we were able to meet Mr. Hong on the morning of our departure from Seoul. He said he had read our HP and was veryexcited. He has lived in Egypt and Malaysia, where his father's relocations took him. When we really need it, a road opens for us.
The UNIMAS team, from Malaysia, visited Pangaea HQ in April. We had meetings and enjoyed a traditional Japanese dinner. It was a day before our visit to Seoul, so I wished it could have been longer.
Kimberly, our intern from Guam, is in the office before and after her Japanese classes. She is very friendly and hardworking. I would like her to help me in operation of international activities.
Well, I introduce Ms. Saeko Tezuka, as known as Saechi, as a Pangaea Ring writer for this month. I met her when I enrolled in MIT Media Lab. She started to actively engage in Pangaea as a facilitator from last year.
Yumi
For MYCC, there were 80 applicants when the program opened, but only room for 25. It is nice to see children coming from many different locations. The children, of course, had a great time, and I found that there were four children who are very interested in Japanese, who can even write and read 'hiragana'!
One issue which we had to deal with was that there were no volunteers with a strong background in computers. Toshi trained two staff members, who must have been very tired after such a long day, to give them extra training on how to operate programs with PangaeaNet and community site, etc.
Prof. Kyoung Jun Lee, who helped Pangaea a great deal by starting the program in Kyung Hee University before we settled at MIZY Center, gave us a reply from UC Berkeley to recommend his Master student as Technical staff for Pangaea. This was a reply to our call for help in seeking a person who can run Webcam activities without Toshi. So we were able to meet Mr. Hong on the morning of our departure from Seoul. He said he had read our HP and was veryexcited. He has lived in Egypt and Malaysia, where his father's relocations took him. When we really need it, a road opens for us.
The UNIMAS team, from Malaysia, visited Pangaea HQ in April. We had meetings and enjoyed a traditional Japanese dinner. It was a day before our visit to Seoul, so I wished it could have been longer.
Kimberly, our intern from Guam, is in the office before and after her Japanese classes. She is very friendly and hardworking. I would like her to help me in operation of international activities.
Well, I introduce Ms. Saeko Tezuka, as known as Saechi, as a Pangaea Ring writer for this month. I met her when I enrolled in MIT Media Lab. She started to actively engage in Pangaea as a facilitator from last year.
Yumi
Posted by: kumakinoko | 3. Newsletter
