School News and recent activity - NILS

87 students graduated from NILS on March 8. When they first arrived in Japan, most of them were total beginners of Japanese language. However, their language skills have now improved surprisingly so that they can communicate with us only in Japanese. They studied Japanese for 1.5 to 2 years at NILS, and they completed their study. They also learned Japanese culture and traditions during their study through lots of activities held by school and local community. Now, many of them understand Japanese way of thinking, and some of them are really like Japanese people in many ways.  They even use and understand Japanese joke.

They all gave us a lot of “thanks” with big smiles. We remember that they were so nervous when they first came to Japan because it was the first time for most of them to stay in a foreign country alone. But people in the community were very warm-hearted to our students, and it was definitely helpful for them to enjoy their life in Japan. Now they are full of confidence.

Mayor of Ogori City, Mr. Hirayasu, and many other people from the community attended the graduation ceremony. They gave encouraging words to our students at the new threshold of their life.
This is the end of their study at NILS, but at the same time, it is a new beginning for their brilliant future. They will study at colleges/universities/vocational schools from April. We hope they will study hard to achieve their ultimate goals and dreams.

Congratulations!　卒業おめでとう！

In addition to April and October enrollments for intensive programs, we have added 2 more enrollments, in July and in January.
For July enrollment, your choice is either 1 year & 9 months course or 1 year courses. For January, either 1 year and 3 months or 1 year courses.
The next enrollment we are accepting now is July enrollment and its application due date is February 28, 2010. We are happy to provide you more options for enrollments.

Please feel free to send us inquiries if you are interested in our intensive programs!

Our students really have lots of chances to join various events held in the community. Today, some of our students enjoyed “yaki-imo (roasted sweeted potato)” with kindergarten kids. “Yaki-imo” is a delicacy in winter in Japan, sold by hawkers.

Our students also introduced their countries and customs to the kids. They also enjoyed playing some traditional games with the kids. The kids learned easy greetings in English and Chinese. They tried to communicate with our students not only in Japanese but in our students’ mother tongues.

Through these kinds of events, both people in the community and our students understand each other’s culture and customs more and more deeply. We are invited “Friendship Party” next month where many foreigners and Japanese living in the area get together eating, talking, making speeches, watching traditional performing arts, …etc.

Many of our students took “Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU)” on November 8th. This exam is necessary to take entrance exams for universities/colleges/vocational schools in Japan. This exam consists of 4 sections: Japanese Language, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. They must get at least 200 points (out of 400) in the section of Japanese Language to go to universities, and more than 300 points for higher level universities such as Kyushu University. Many students came to school to study for this exam after school from September. Many of our students showed us good smiles today, so we thought they did well in the exam. Hope all of our students can go to universities/colleges/vocational schools of their first choice!

The entrance ceremony for the Autumn 2009 Session was held on October 16th at NILS. New students from overseas joined us - from the U.S., Austria, China and Bangladesh. New students looked a little nervous at first, however, they seemed to feel comfortable gradually during the ceremony after both our current students and trainers had given them cordial greetings including welcome song.
They now have started a new life here with us - We are going to offer the best classes and sure to follow up their achievement！

Here, one of new students, Mr. Gustavo from the U.S. tells you how wonderful the ceremony was -

Interviewer:Hi, Gusutavo. How was the ceremony last week?
Gustavo:The entrance ceremony really made me feel the Japanese school experience. It may have been short, but we all understand that we had to work hard to achieve our goals, and that we all work as a team to help each other out.

Interviewer: Why did you choose NILS among many Japanese language schools in Japan?
Gustavo:NILS Japanese Language School is one of the easiest ones to find on the Internet. That made me find them. And because of their instantaneous assistance, I knew they were the most effective ones in teaching Japanese as well.

Interviewer: How do you want to use your Japanese language skills in your future?
Gustavo:I would like to use the Japanese language in order to get a scholarship for college. I already speak 3 languages, and know that the 4th one, like Japanese, will increase my chances of entering a good university.

Interviewer: About two weeks have passed since your arrival in Fukuoka. How is your daily life here in Japan?
Gusutavo:I cannot complain. I have a great life here. After the Japanese classes, I have enough time to concentrate on homework, hobbies, and career-wise things. The people I have met are all very nice and welcoming, and it is a good place to live for students on budgets.

Interviewer:You are enjoying your life in Japan! At last, please tell us about your final goal at NILS.
Gustavo: My final goal is to speak fluent Japanese, just like everyone else!
Interviewer: Sure you will! Let us help you increase your language skills. Thank you for taking your time for the interview.

We would like to introduce local cuisine of Fukuoka (Hakata).
Today, Hakata’s most popular souvenir is Karashi mentaiko (spicy marinated pollock roe). It was first produced on January 10, 1949. It goes best with a bowl of steaming rice. Or mix it with spaghetti noodles. Put them in Dashi-maki (an egg dish). Karashi mentai are known throughout Japan.
The origin of Tonkotsu ramen (noodle in a thick broth made by boiling pork bones) is still not clear. Some people say it originated in Kurume. Others say it has origins in Nagasaki Champon noodles. Enjoy a delicious bowl of tonkotsu ramen by freely adding beni-shoga (slices red ginger) and sesame seeds found on any shop table. Be like a local and order other portion of noodles if you have enough room in your stomach.
Hakata is a treasure chest of delicious foods. The popular hot pot dish called Mizu-taki originated here in 1905 when consome and Chinese style chicken soups were mixed together. Also, there’s Motsu-nabe originally a countryside meal made with beed innards and sushi made with fresh seafood from the Genkai Sea.
We hope you will enjoy not only studying Japanese here at NILS but eating local cuisine here in Fukuoka!

New Semester of NILS has just started (We have two semesters: April-September and October-March). Our students enjoyed a 5-day fall break, and then they started a new semester today. Many students began to prepare for colleges/universities. After today’s class, some students came to the school and consulted with their teachers about colleges/universities where they wish to study the most. Students study Japanese much harder than before to make their dreams come true.
We also have a great news! Two students passed graduate schools: One student studies at Kyushu University and the other at Hiroshima University. Both universities are among the highest level universities in Japan. One of them also passed Level 1 of Japanese Language Proficiency Test! All of the teachers and staffs of NILS hope their futures will be successful!!

Chinese students of NILS opened a one-day gyoza (餃子) shop in the festival held in Ogori at the end of August. This festival is held every summer in Ogori and many people in the community enjoy it.
Gyoza, or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling widely popular in China and Japan as well as outside of East Asia. Gyoza typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegitable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping.
Boiled dumplings are popular in China, and our students also served boiled ones in the festival. They started to cook gyoza at noon and to serve in the evening. Their gyoza was so popular that people coming to the festival really enjoyed Chinese-style gyoza (a little different from Japanese-style). They served more than 100 packs (6 pieces of gyoza in a pack) in the festival. Our students enjoyed Japanese culture, and at the same time they had an opportunity to introduce their culture to Japanese people in the community.

We usually have an activity every Wednesday. The purpose is to let our students know more about Japanese culture and enjoy Fukuoka. This week the students from Austria and the U.S. experienced calligraphy with Shimogawa-sensei. At first, she taught them how to say “ink (sumi)”, “brush (fude)” and some other related words in Japanese. And then teacher taught them how to use the brush with the ink, and how to write strokes. Since both of our students had studied Chinese before, they wrote Chinese characters more smoothly than we expected. Finally they got very good and satisfying works.

Summer Course of 12 days finished on July 31. On the last day, we had a small speech contest. They studied Japanese at NILS for a short time of period, but their language skills improved more than we expected.
A Korean student introduced her country in Japanese using sllides. She told us about many interesting and fascinating spots in Korea. Her Japanese got much better than before, and it was very comfotable to listen to her story given in her fluent Japanese. We’ve been to Korea once for job and we didn’t have enough time to enjoy the country, but we really would like to go to Korea when we heard her speech.
All of the students really enjoyed our summer course, and they told us they would like to join the program again! We are planning to the same kind of program again next summer.