Sixty-Two Days of Summer Vacation Has Ended. Let’s Get a Fresh Start!

“Each student will grow and be more matured when you return to school in two months!” This is what I wrote in the last edition of “Smile (Vol. 7)” issued on June 16. During the summer, a number of life threatening disasters were reported almost everyday, including the torrential rain and landslides in western Japan, severe damages caused by one typhoon after another, extreme heat wave and record-breaking high temperatures in Japan, etc. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to those who were affected by these frightening events.
Even here in the Philadelphia area, our smartphones were continuously delivering flood warnings and emergency alerts these past few weeks. I hope all students and their families remained safe.
The long summer vacation is over, and laughters and giggle have returned to Friends’ Central. Did you have a productive summer? Were you able to achieve the goals you established prior to the summer? Did you have a healthy summer? And did you complete all homework? I bet everyone is fine.
The second semester is being started. I hope you are willing to continue to challenge yourself to accomplish your new goals. I look forward to seeing you grow further!

New Class Structure: Two Classrooms in Elementary 2nd Grade

As we mentioned before, there has been two classrooms in elementary 2nd grade. Due to relocation of some families, here is an updated list of student enrollment:

As of August 18,
Kindergarten: Second Year (18) and Third Year (21)
Elementary: 1st (32), 2nd (26), 3rd (17), 4th (21), 5th (18), and 6th (11)
Junior High: 1st (13), 2nd (11), and 3rd (8)
High School: 1st (13), 2nd (4), and 3rd (7)
Japanese Heritage Courses (38)
Adult Courses (TBA*)
* The final number is currently unknown as new students are being enrolled.

Reading Award “Yokozuna”

We’ve got a great news! The children listed below have read 100 books and achieved the “Yokozuna” book reading awards! Congratulations!

Kindergarten
Third Year Classroom 1 – Tomoka Yoshikawa *200 books
Third Year Classroom 1 – Emma Iyama
Third Year Classroom 2 – Haruki Ato *200 books
Third Year Classroom 2 – Ayame Barnes
Third Year Classroom 2 – Chiaki Barnes
Third Year Classroom 2 – Shuji Sako

Japanese Heritage Courses
Keisho 1 – Kotoko Pfau

Adult Course Graduation (10 Students Have Completed)

The graduation ceremony for the Adult Course took place on the last day of the first semester, Saturday, June 16. We normally celebrate both Adult Course graduates and high school summer graduates together, but this year, we only celebrated 10 graduates from the Adult Course. Some students completed the entire 4-year program, while some studied Japanese at other institutions and spent a couple of years in the Adult Course. We even have some enthusiastic graduates who have chosen to repeat the 4th year to continue the study of Japanese. At the graduation, the students presented their own calligraphy projects where they wrote a complete sentence in Japanese using Kanji in both “on-yomi” and “kun-yomi.” The new academic year for Adult Course begins at the end of August. New students are enrolling, and the new program is about to begin!

Announcements

Second Semester Tuition Payments

1. A tuition bill for the second semester dated August 18 will be sent to your email address registered with JLSP on Friday, August 17.
2. The payment must be made by Saturday, September 1.
3. If you don’t receive your invoice approximately by August 18, please contact the JLSP accountant at accounting@jlsp.us.
* Please read other important emails from each classroom carefully.

Kanji Proficiency Test

Date: October 27th (Saturday), 2018
Test applicants should pick up directly the test application form from the staff office.
Next, please submit the test application form to the office along with the test fee (only check is accepted) by September 1st(Saturday), 2018.
※ Details on start time, venue etc will be announced at a later date.

I hope you enjoy our weekly newsletter “Smile” in this new semester, too!