Asia Institute Outreach Newsletter
Message from the Outreach Coordinator
Asia Institute
University of Virginia
110 Minor Hall
PO Box 400169
Charlottesville,VA
22904-4169
County, Newport News, Charlottesville,
Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Amherst! She has
been such a wonderful and lively presence
in our office and we are so glad that she is
here with us. Remember that Haruko can
come to your school at no cost to talk about
Japanese language, culture, history, food,
art, and just about anything else you can
imagine.
Contact her at [email protected] to
schedule a visit.
Contents
Message from the OC
1
Recent Events
1
NEH Bridging Cultures grant
2
Chinese STARTALK
2
Unique Opportunities
2
Asia SOLs & Activities
3
Asia In the News
4
Contact/Outreach Request
4
Meanwhile, I have been awarded a grant
from the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH) that brings $360,000 to
Virginia community colleges. Read about it
on page 2.
Happy March (finally!) – we here in the Asia
Institute are reaaaalllly glad that winter is
almost over. Spring is just…so much better
than winter! Haruko Yuda, our Japan
Outreach Coordinator has been hard at work
since we last issued an Outreach Newsletter.
She has visited schools, students, classrooms,
and teachers in Nelson County, Campbell
Recent Events

“Knowledge is the
true organ of sight,
not the eyes.”
-Panchatantra
In early December, the Asia
Institute and East Asia Center
hosted a professional development
workshop at Blue Ridge
Community College with
presentations by teachers from
Hanover, Albemarle, Nelson, and
Prince William. Haruko did a sushi
demo!

UVa Tibet Day was held on
th
February 27 with authentic
Tibetan performances and songs.

The Piedmont Chinese Association
held its annual Lunar New Year
Festival at Fashion Square Mall
here in Charlottesville in February.
We are happy to announce that we will yet
again host a day program for Chinese here
at UVa this summer for free for local
students. Read more about the Chinese
STARTALK program on page 2.
I am traveling to Korea at the end of March
through a fellowship with Korea Society.
They have fantastic opportunities for
teachers to travel to Korea for free. Stay
tuned for a recap in the Summer 2013
newsletter!
-Rachel Stauffer

The Asia Institute and East Asia
Center hosted the second Japan
Foundation Film Series in the fall,
featuring contemporary Japanese
film.

Asia Institute and South Asia Center
faculty Karen Lang and Kurtis
Schaeffer gave talks on Tibet and
Himalayan culture at Piedmont
Virginia Community College on the
occasion of the visit of the Dalai
Lama in October.

The Asia Institute gained a fantastic
undergraduate intern, Rosalind
Reischer, who hails from Arlington,
Virginia. She has done a great job
of revamping our social media!
2
NEH Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges
The University of Virginia will launch a twoyear project to boost global humanities in
Virginia’s community colleges, thanks to a
recently announced grant from the federal
National Endowment for the Humanities. The
new program, “Understanding the Non-West:
Strengthening Global Humanities at Virginia’s
Community Colleges,” will allow faculty from
five community colleges around the
commonwealth to work closely with U.Va. to
expand knowledge and instruction.
Seeking enlightenment?
The Asia Institute houses faculty
who are experts on the cultures
of China, Japan, Korea, India,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, and
Nepal. We also work with U.Va
students and staff volunteers
who are interested in visiting
schools to provide cultural and
informational programming on
their study or travel experiences.
We provide these services at no
cost to schools.
and Virginia Western Community College in
Roanoke.
Participants will attend a five-day symposium
in Charlottesville in August, and will then work
with UVa faculty facilitators as they tackle a
reading list on the region they choose to
investigate.
At the end of the two-year project, institutions
will have ideally gained a greater sense of how
to internationalize curriculum at their
institutions. The grant also provides $20,000 to
each institution to direct towards
internationalization activities, possibly for
resources, programming, or continued faculty
development.
The NEH UVa Bridging Cultures at Community
Colleges project will offer 36 community
college faculty a unique professional
development experience designed to broaden
understanding and enrich appreciation for the
cultural traditions, literature, and cinema of
China, India, the Middle East, Russia and
Eurasia, and Japan.
Read more about this exciting Asia Institute
project that Rachel Stauffer is directing at UVa
Today.
Community college faculty participants will
come from 5 Virginia institutions: Piedmont
Virginia Community College in Charlottesville,
J. Sargeant Reynolds in the Richmond area,
Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers
Cave, Southwest Virginia Community College
Quick Japanese for
Beginners
Love Japanese food, culture, and art but feel
overwhelmed by language? It’s perfectly
natural. We feel your pain! Many people think
that Japanese and Chinese are the same thing.
(The saying “It’s all Greek Chinese to me”
comes to mind).
Unique Opportunities
U.Va at Wise will take educators to China
June 24-July 3, 2013 through a special
professional development program (and
offered at a special rate) developed by EF
Educational Tours. For more information, visit
the website of the Center for Teaching
Excellence (CTE) at U.Va Wise.
China and India: Comparisons and
Connections, An NEH Summer Institute for
K-12 Teachers, University at Buffalo, State
University of New York
www.asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nehsummeri
nstitute
The Asian Studies Program of the University at
Buffalo invites applications for “China and
India: Comparisons and Connections,” a threeweek NEH summer institute for teachers in July
2013. The Institute is open to thirty teachers
and prospective teachers of any grade level or
subject in U.S. schools who have the
opportunity to teach about China and India in
their classes.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
rd
But actually, Japanese and Chinese are quite
different, both in writing system and in
structure. We won’t bore you here with the
grammatical contrasts, but let’s do talk about
the Japanese writing system.
The 3 annual UVa Chinese STARTALK Summer
Language Immersion program is now soliciting
So, yes. Japanese does incorporate usage of
th
applications. Deadline: April 19 , 2013
Chinese characters, which in Japanese are
th
th
ELIGIBILITY: Rising 9 through 12 graders
with zero or very little knowledge of Mandarin
Chinese.
DATES: June 24 – July 3, 2013 (excluding
Sunday, June 30).
CLASS SCHEDULE: Classes begin at 9:00 a.m.
and end by 12:30PM. Class will be held on
Saturday, June 29.
TRANSPORTATION AND PARKING: The
program cannot provide transportation
services or parking. Parents and student
participants are solely responsible for daily
transportation to and from University Grounds.
Visit http://uvachinesestartalk.wordpress.com
for the application and more information.
called kanji. So if you think that Japanese and
Chinese look similar, you are correct! However,
the interpretation and the pronunciation of
the kanji for Japanese speakers is often very
different from their meaning and sound in
Chinese.
Additionally, Japanese uses two syllabicbased writing systems to illustrate
pronunciation of the kanji. These two systems
are called hiragana, used for Japanese words
and in combination with kanji, and katakana,
used mostly to transliterate foreign words.
Chinese and Japanese handle the adoption of
foreign words differently. Whereas Chinese
uses characters to convey the concept of the
object, Japanese adopts the foreign word.
(Continued on page 4)
3
Asia in the Social Studies SOLs with a Suggested Activity and a Suggested Extension
WG.1 The student will use maps, globes, satellite images, photographs, or diagrams to develop and refine mental maps of
world regions.
Essential Knowledge: Describing the location of places in terms of the human characteristics of a place (e.g., languages, types
of housing, dress, recreation, customs, and traditions).
Suggested Activity: Have students interact with these maps of London and New York that indicate the languages of Tweets
sent by city dwellers and visitors. Have students compose questions about the maps in terms of what the mapping of
language actually tells us about the cultural geography of these two cities in terms of ethnicity and diversity. Have students
answer these questions by researching demographic data – the UK Office for National Statistics and the US Census Bureau are
good places to start. Also ask students to consider the languages that are most prevalent and least prevalent. Are these
congruent to current world populations? For example, the number of Chinese tweets in the New York map is very low. But
China has the world’s largest population at over 1 billion. Does the number of speakers of a language reflect the number of
people who associate themselves ethnically with their language’s majority of speakers? Now have students think about
Virginia? What would a language map of Virginia look like based on census bureau data? What would a graph of languages
spoken at your school look like?
WHI.7e The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Byzantine Empire and Russia from about 300 to 1000 AD
Essential Understandings: Byzantine civilization influenced Russian and Eastern European civilizations through its religion,
culture, and trade.
Essential Questions: Why did the Byzantine Empire have so much influence on religion, culture, and trade in Russia and
Eastern Europe?
Essential Knowledge: Adoption of Orthodox Christianity by Russia and much of Eastern Europe.
Suggested Content for Extension: What? What is a Standard about Byzantium doing here in the Asia Institute newsletter? Well,
we’re tweaking things a bit – we won’t be talking about Eastern Europe, or really Russia either, but two nations that adopted
Christianity long before either region: Armenia (converted in 301, before the Edict of Milan) and Georgia (converted around
327). It is important to note also that both of these nations are officially still Orthodox Christian to this day, despite repeated
and tumultuous invasions and occupations. Armenia is the world’s oldest Christian nation. The Christianization of Armenia is
best told in Agathangelos’ “History of St. Gregory and the Conversion of Armenia”. In any case, Georgia and Armenia are
claimed by both Europe and Asia and simultaneously by neither. The highest peak in Europe is Mount Elbruz, in the Caucasus,
in Georgia. Yet, the CIA classifies Armenia and Georgia as Middle Eastern, while the Department of State categorizes them
into the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Even though the Asia Institute does not exactly cover Armenia and Georgia
(we tend to be more focused on East Asia and South Asia), this brings up an important point about where the line is on the
Great Eurasian Plain, that is, that divides Europe from Asia. This Russian map conveniently omits Georgia, Armenia, and
Turkey as European, emboldening everything west of the Caucasus region as Europe (Russia to the west of the Urals included).
Through study of these countries’ respective and interrelated histories and cultures, it is easy to see why the confusion exists.
Christian but occupied by Muslim Turks and Persians, connected to Byzantium through the Black Sea, but to the great
Eurasian steppes north of the mountains and east of the Caspian Sea. As an extension project with students in World History
and Geography, have them research these countries and their histories. Are they European or Asian? How are the lines drawn?
th
For what it’s worth, Russia doesn’t really make contact with the region until the late 18 century (except for a brief,
th
unsuccessful marriage between a Russian noble and the great Georgian Queen Tamar in the 12 century). This extension can
easily be linked to contemporary politics – Georgia’s Rose Revolution, the 2008 Russian invasion of South Ossetia, the conflict
in Nagorno-Karabakh, the recent Georgian presidential elections.
Suggested Resources: Armeniapedia | St. Nino and the Conversion of Georgia | Caucasian Knot | My Armenia documentary
Need a refresher? Contact us!
Quick Japanese
for Beginners
Asia in the News
China and the Mirror of History
Economist
March 4, 2013
Rachel Stauffer, PhD
Outreach Coordinator
Asia Institute
University of Virginia
PO Box 400169
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4169
Phone:
(434) 982-0560
Fax:
(434) 982-6167
E-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
25 Years of Slam Dunk Diplomacy
North Korea News
March 4, 2013
Claustrophobia-enducing photos of Japan’s Apartments
Washington Post
March 4, 2013
As we discussed in the Spring 2012
newsletter Chinese 电脑 diannao literally
means ‘electric brain’, but translates as
‘computer’. In Japanese, the word uses
katakana to transliterate the Western
word, コンピュータ.Let’s break that
down.
コ ン ピ ュ ー タ
Ko n pi yu u ta
In this way, Japanese is almost more
user-friendly for those Americans who
have studied Western languages like
Spanish (computadora, anyone?) – of
course you still have to learn two
syllabaries and a bunch of kanji. But the
rigor of Japanese only contributes to its
charm.
The Scariest Thing I Did in India
New York Times
February 22, 2013
Was Tamerlane Disabled?
BBC
December 4, 2012
Live China TV Coverage of Executions Raises Outcry
LA Times
March 1, 2013
Want more?!?
Omniglot
Sri Lanka Takes Next Step to Opening Strategic Port
Reuters
March 4, 2013
How to Tell Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean Apart
Japanese Writing Tutor
Request Outreach Online
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/asiainstitute/outreach/contact
Fill out the form found at the address above and mail, e-mail, or fax to Rachel Stauffer (see above). You may also print,
complete, and mail in the form below. We hope to hear from you!
Name:
Title:
School/Division:
E-mail:
Work Phone:
Describe the nature of your inquiry/request: