日本語The News Letter / 1st SEM. 2022 is now available online.
Dear Parents and Guardians:
Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year at Gardena Buddhist Church Japanese Language School! I hope everyone is doing well. The new school year has started, and it has already been a month and a half. The season is definitely shifting from summer to autumn, and the scenery outside is changing from green to autumn colors.
The school reopened, and the two-and-a-half years of online classes have ended. On the first day of school, I was amazed at the children’s growth, who I could only see through the screen. “They’re grown up,” is what I told myself, “They came back to school since it was an in-person class.” I enter the classrooms to see how the classes are going every week, and the moment I knock on the doors and open them, I see children quietly listening to what the teacher is saying. It’s a completely different scene from when they are at recess. I am always encouraged by their attitudes. I am glad that the school was able to reopen.
I would like to introduce the new teachers. Ms. Susie Boone and Ms. Sayaka Kajiwara as our Nyumon teachers. Ms. Maho Moriguchi is our 5th-grade teacher, and Ms. Kuniko Miyanaga is our 8th-11th-grade teacher. Ms. Boone is an experienced language teacher who has been teaching English to Japanese children as an ESL teacher for many years. Ms. Kajiwara majored in early childhood education and is expected to use that in teaching children the Japanese language. Ms. Moriguchi has had two children of her own who attended our school for many years and has experience raising them to be excellent bilinguals. Ms. Miyanaga taught cultural anthropology (specializing in Japanese society and culture) to university students in Japan in both Japanese and English. She is an expert on Japan, the Japanese language, and culture.
We look forward to working with you and your students again this year!
Sincerely,
Harumi Uehara, Principal
Gardena Buddhist Church Japanese Language School
Important Dates
| 11/26 | Sat | Thanksgiving Day, No School |
| 12/17 | Sat | 1st Trimester Ends & ZOOM Conference |
| 12/24・31 | Sat | Winter Break |
| 1/7 | Sat | 2nd Trimester Begins |
2022-2023 Teachers
| Nyumon | Ms. Susie Boone |
| Nyumon | Ms. Sayaka Kajiwara |
| Grade 1 | Ms. Toshiko Williams |
| Grade 2 | Ms. Sachiko Sugaya |
| Grade 3 | Ms. Emiko Atagi |
| Grade 4 | Ms. Mika Watanabe |
| Grade 5 | Ms. Tomoko Ando |
| Grade 5 | Ms. Maho Moriguchi |
| Grade 6 & 7 | Mr. Masaru Yashiro |
| Grade 8 ~ 11 | Ms. Kuniko Miyanaga |
| Administrative assistant | Ms. Tomoko Ando |