St. Marks School in Dallas
April 7, 2002

Deai Workshop took place on the day we sprung forward with Daylight Saving Time. With the new time, we sprung forward in commitment and enthusiasm that this Deai program can provide much needed current cultural issues in our classrooms. Deai is a project and a program of Japan Forum (http://www.tjf.or.jp) to teach Japanese language through meeting seven different high school students all over Japan.

The day began with introduction of Deai, which come in electronic form from http://http://www.tjf.or.jp/deai/ and hardcopy form which Japan Forum provide one copy (really a large box) per school, by a representative of Japan Forum, Ms. Yoko Harashima. She introduced us to their intention, methodology, pedagogy, and possible usage in our classrooms.

Then Barber sensei from St. Marks School shared with us how she incorporated Deai with her curriculum successfully.

Obento, a nice "makunouchi" type, was provided by Japan Foundation. This nice gesture further encouraged teachers to incorporate Deai program into their classrooms. (May be it was just me who has a simple mind and easy to be bought out by food.) As we are typical Japanese, we kept talking about work throughout lunch and continued workshop as we stuffed our mouth with such okazu as "buta no kakuni" and "ebi to anago no nigiri-zushi".

After the lunch we proceeded to St. Mark's computer room. As we divided into small groups, we tried out Deai Online and discussed lesson plans, program potentials, and its shortcoming. Most of us were pleased with the product, and able to provide some constructive criticisms. Harashima-san's personality, knowledge of the content, and positive attitude lightened the entire workshop and made it a short day.

In conclusion, in teaching high school Japanese Deai is a great tool on and off line to provide the current cultural material and motivate students to speak and learn the language.

Kumahata