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New Unit: Literature from Japan!

Posted on March 31, 2016

We’re very excited to announce that we are publishing the first two parts of our newest country unit – this time we’re in Japan!

Read Japan

To debut the unit, we are publishing literature around the themes of “Ghosts, Dreams, and Visions” and “Love Stories,” which overlaps with the “Love Stories” theme in the China Unit. We’re also publishing an excerpt from the novel Sentimental Education, which translator Allison Markin Powell reads from and discusses in our newest video.

In these modules, you will have the chance to read a variety of beautiful, inspiring, sometimes dark, and sometimes humorous literature. In the tabbed sections next to the literature, you’ll also find specifically designed lesson plans for each piece of literature, and resources to help students understand the cultural, historical, geographical, and literary context. The Context and Playlist tabs in these modules include links to traditional Japanese ghost stories; a collection of dream-inspired works; maps of locations in the stories; Japanese home-cooking recipes; videos and articles about contemporary issues in Japan, and much more. Also, to facilitate classroom discussions, at the top of each Context tab includes the audio recording of the pronunciation for the Japanese names in each story.

Stay tuned for the following modules to come: the rest of the literature in the "Leaving Home" theme, which overlaps with themes in the Egypt and Mexico units; “Memories;” and "Transformations" will all be published over the next few months.

In addition to the new literature, teaching ideas, and contextual materials, we are also pleased to share a new WWB Campus video, which features translator Allison Markin Powell. Powell talks about her experiences in Japan and take on Japanese culture, introduces some interesting Japanese words, and reads an excerpt in Japanese from Sentimental Education.

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