Japanese language school is expanding

This fall, the Sakura Japanese Language School at Renison University College is expanding, with plans to launch a new class for children aged six to seven years old.

The program was established at Renison last September with one class available for students aged four to six years old. This year, the second class was added due to increased interest from the local community and to provide more age-focused lessons to the two different age groups.

Sakura provides students with an enjoyable environment to foster language skills and learn about Japanese culture through hands-on activities and special events. Students can relax in the child-friendly and resourceful environment, with desks and chairs fit for children and a lending library with many children’s books. Classes are conducted in Japanese by certified Japanese elementary school teachers.

Classes take place from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, beginning on September 8, 2012 and run until June 8, 2013 (a total of 34 classes). The cost is $400 per year, and it qualifies as an activity under the Children’s Activity Tax Credit program. Anyone with questions about the program and registration details can call 519-884-4404 ext. 28690 or 28661 or visit the website.

 

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Cool heads prevail

An excerpt from a feature story in the Spring 2012 issue of the University of Waterloo Magazine.

It’s the first day of Ellsworth LeDrew’s first year physical geography class, a course the eminent geography and environmental management professor has taught for years. The students, jittery and excited to finally be sitting in a lecture hall after leaving high school behind, grow quiet as LeDrew begins to flip through slides depicting something he’s passionate about protecting and preserving: coral reefs.

The beauty of the reefs is unmatched by almost anything else on earth, with brilliant orange, red and blue hues created by corals – tiny animals that attach themselves to the hard calcium carbonate skeleton of the reef. They dot oceans and draw tourists and divers in droves. Often compared to tropical rainforests, reefs represent some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and serve to cycle carbon dioxide in the ocean.

But they’re in serious trouble.

Climate change – the term used to describe when long-term weather patterns are altered – is having a serious impact on reefs, turning what were once thriving bionetworks into bleached, barren wastelands. Acidic oceans, rising water levels and intense tourism are considered some of the culprits. But so is warming water. “This is a major lesson that I’m trying to get through to my students,” LeDrew says.

Read on, by visiting: https://uwaterloo.ca/alumni/cool-heads-prevail-0

 

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