|
Monday,
October 19th, 2009
The
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
has been sponsoring an educational outreach program,
the
Pre-College Japanese Language Program, since
2004. Eriko Sato, a lecturer from the Department, is
the program director.
Sato
and her 14-year-old-daughter, Anna, have created a
bilingual educational picture book for children,
My First Japanese Kanji Book, through
activities that are part of the Pre-College Japanese
Language Program. A book signing was held at the
Wang Center Gift Shop in September for this
mother-daughter, teacher-student inspirational
collaborative publication. The book is now available
from Tuttle Publishing and is available at the
University Bookstore in the faculty author’s
section.
Anna
co-authored and illustrated the book. She learned a
few hundred kanji characters (Chinese style
characters assimilated for Japanese usage) in the
program. The book introduces more than 100 kanji
characters to children in English-speaking
countries. Eriko carefully organized 36 kanji
lessons, each of which introduces a few kanji
characters that share a common theme or a similar
structure. Using her perspective as a
second-generation Japanese American child, Anna
added a poem with the kanji characters for each
lesson, illustrated the poems, and created a
bilingual audio CD to accompany the book. |
