web site review

[Anonymous]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

NHK is a Japanese produced news program that is broadcast on many PBS stations. Like any other news program, daily news programs are its mainstay. While the news programs cover the standard international headlines, they differ in their emphasis on issues and topics that are specifically centered on Japan and East Asia. While, in my perspective, NHK news programs tend to exhibit a pro-Japan bias, they often provide insights into the way Japan and other Asian nations view events and issues taking place in the world differently than Americans and Europeans. However, NHK is not merely a news program. It also produces a variety of programs which are designed to educate and inform the viewer about different aspects of Asian culture, including pop culture, music, science and technology, and traditional Japanese culture and art. Most of the programs are very well produced and are very interesting and entertaining, but they are also very educational because they offer insights into Asian culture and Asian perspectives. Again, the emphasis is on Japanese culture, but most of the programs also cover the cultures of other East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam, to name just a few.

The NHK website reflects the variety and diversity of programming on the NHK television program. It is well organized, with tabs that provide access to the variety of special programs that the company produces. The following are a sample of the tabs present on their webpage: Newsline (their daily news program), Great Gear (a program on innovative Japanese products), Kawaii International, (a program of the Kawaii culture which centers around popular fashion trends that originate from Japan), and Let’s Cook Japan, (a Japanese cooking program). Again, there is an emphasis on Japan and the Japanese perspective, even though there are specific programs on other East Asian countries.

The website is a useful resource for students who are researching the Japanese and Asian perspective on international events. It offers a glimpse of the more localized issues that concern Japan and its neighbors. One particularly useful feature of the website is the option of selecting the language used to present the programs. Like most LAUSD schools, Panorama High School, where I teach, has a very high percentage of English learners who speak Spanish as their primary language. However, this language barrier is lessened considerably since students can view the website in Spanish.

I think the NHK website would be a valuable tool to help my students develop a broader view of the world and the events that that are occurring. So often, what little news they are exposed to reflects an American or European sensibility and perspective. NHK would allow them to see more of a Japanese or East Asian perspective of these contemporary news stories and allow them to develop a more complete picture of the events they report. Additionally, the website is, for lack of a better word, fun. It contains a variety of programs designed to entertain and educate anyone who is interested in Japanese or East Asian culture. The website would be suitable of individual research projects where students pick a topic that centers on Japan or East Asia and write a report based on the information found. The NHK website also contains a link to a Japanese language program that teaches the viewer how to read and state useful Japanese phrases.

In conclusion, I feel the NHK website to be a very useful resource for students who are interested in Japan and East Asia. Its only limitation may be its emphasis on Japan and Japanese culture, but it still has more news and programs on other East Asian countries than the standard American news programs that the students and their parents are exposed to.

[Anonymous]

In constructing my curriculum project, "China in Three Words,"I had to take my first baby steps in the direction of learning the Chinese language. The website I ended up using most frequently was mdbg.net, a Chinese-English translation site. I found the site to be very helpful, easy to use, and full of features that helped me get a sense of what the Chinese language is like. For example, in addition to accepting all forms of input--Simplified, Traditional, and handwritten--it also has a list of all the radicals. I used this site to gather the Chinese characters I want my students to learn, and to discover much more about the language than I had known before.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

http://www.go-globe.com/blog/ecommerce-in-asia/

This site is one large infographic on ecommerce in Asia. It breaks down how many internet users live in Asia and how they consume goods through the internet by category. I was easily able to navigate through this site simply by scrolling down and reading the statistics that are related to one another and follow a logical step.

Though this site doesn't concentrate on EAST Asia, I felt it could be used easily with students to cover many different topics.
-Infographics are an efficient and interesting way for students to get engaged in statistics
-I can have a cooperative assignment with our school's computer graphic classes by creating a project where they have to make similar infographics for a topic of their choice.
-The infographic shows geography of Asian countries as well as their flags. The statistics will give students a better idea of how vast Asia is and how it effects the world climate and economy

Arno Madathian

[Author]

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