Homestay hosts needed for Chinese, Japanese, Korean visitors this year.

GlobalPittsburgh shares news of its needs for host families from July through next January for various cohorts of visitors, including Korean English teachers, Chinese students, and Japanese students from Yasuda University.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in June.

via @japangov

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will continue to offer free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at some of its branches this June. Check out the class information below in addition to its language resources on the shelves and online.

As the library notes: these classes are free; registration is not required; no materials are needed and nothing needs to be bought; new participants are welcome at any time; classes are for adults (unless otherwise noted) but well-behaved young people are welcome to join as well.

MAMAMOO's "gogobebe" at this weekend's K-pop Class, June 1.

The weekly K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy will do MAMAMOO (마마무)'s "gogobebe" for its second meeting on June 1. The class is held each Saturday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, and the cost is $18 for a drop-in session. Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).

K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy, Saturdays starting May 25.

Lucy Chen will once again offer K-Pop Dance Classes at Yanlai Dance Academy this summer, with the first class this Saturday.

K-pop has been sweeping through the popular mainstream culture. Come learn the choruses to your favorite songs at this dance class! For all levels! Taught by Lucy Chen.

Feel free to request songs that you want to learn the dances to by commenting below or emailing lulujchen@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee your song will be taught but a schedule will be posted later with more details!

The classes will run Saturdays from May 25 through August 10 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm (no classes on July 6 or July 20). Pricing information is available online; non-Yanlai students pay $18 per drop-in session or $120 for all 10 classes. Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in May.

via @koreanet.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will continue to offer free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at some of its branches this May. Check out the class information below in addition to its language resources on the shelves and online.

As the library notes: these classes are free; registration is not required; no materials are needed and nothing needs to be bought; new participants are welcome at any time; classes are for adults (unless otherwise noted) but well-behaved young people are welcome to join as well.

New dates for K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy, starting May 25.

Lucy Chen will once again offer K-Pop Dance Classes at Yanlai Dance Academy this summer, with a slight change of schedule from the last announcement in March.

K-pop has been sweeping through the popular mainstream culture. Come learn the choruses to your favorite songs at this dance class! For all levels! Taught by Lucy Chen.

Feel free to request songs that you want to learn the dances to by commenting below or emailing lulujchen@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee your song will be taught but a schedule will be posted later with more details!

The classes will run Saturdays from May 25 through August 10 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm (no classes on July 6 or July 20). Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).

Homestay hosts needed for Chinese, Japanese, Korean visitors this year.

GlobalPittsburgh shares news of its needs for host families from May through next January for various cohorts of visitors, including Korean English teachers, Chinese students, and Japanese students from Yasuda University.

Great DEALL (Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures) Conference celebrating undergraduate research, April 18 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will hold its first Great DEAL Conference on April 18.

The faculty of East Asian Languages & Literatures will host a celebration of the best and brightest of our students. All of our graduating seniors will be presenting a summary of their research projects. Prizes will be awarded. Refreshments will be offered during this day-long event of presentations and poster presentations. Learn about East Asia through the experience of hard-working undergrads. You'll be amazed.

The event runs from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in 2500 Posvar Hall (map).

No Korean Food Bazaar for 2019; aims for 2020 return.

The annual Korean Food Bazaar (선교바자회) in Shadyside is taking 2019 off. A tradition of the Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh for 23 years, the church confirmed on Sunday it will not organize the festival this year, but will aim for a 2020 return. The bazaar has typically run on the first Saturday of May.

"Asia Pop" one-credit mini course at Pitt, Fall 2019.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will offer a 1-credit mini course titled "Asia Pop" in Fall 2019.

This mini 1 credit pop-up course explores the spread of Asian popular music across the world in conjunction with the Asian Studies Center lecture series on Asian pop culture. This year's theme is East Asian pop: J-pop (Japan), K-pop (Korea), and Canto/Mando Pop (Hong Kong and China). In this course, students will track the lecture series and discuss issues that include the global legacy of East Asian pop, the role of media and technology, popular music as an instrument of soft power, participatory fandom and international business. This course may also include some experiential learning opportunities such as a dance workshop and field trip. Students will be required to write a reflection paper at the end of the term.

K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy this summer.

Lucy Chen will once again offer K-Pop Dance Classes at Yanlai Dance Academy this summer.

K-pop has been sweeping through the popular mainstream culture. Come learn the choruses to your favorite songs at this dance class! For all levels! Taught by Lucy Chen.

Feel free to request songs that you want to learn the dances to by commenting below or emailing lulujchen@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee your song will be taught but a schedule will be posted later with more details!

The classes will run Saturdays from May 11 through July 13 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).

2005 Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) in Pittsburgh, April 7, 8, and 10.

The 2005 Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) will play in Pittsburgh on April 7, 8, and 10 as part of this year's GKIDS Ghibli Fest 2019.

Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste, jealous of their friendship, puts a curse on Sophie and turns her into a 90-year-old woman. On a quest to break the spell, Sophie climbs aboard Howl’s magnificent moving castle and into a new life of wonder and adventure. But as the true power of Howl’s wizardry is revealed, Sophie finds herself fighting to protect them both from a dangerous war of sorcery that threatens their world.

It will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark theaters in Monroeville and the North Hills. The April 7 and 10 shows are dubbed in English, while the April 8 show is in Japanese with English subtitles. Tickets are available online.

Korean film Burning (버닝) free at Pitt, March 29.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present Burning (버닝) on March 29, the final installment of this year's Korean Film Festival. The official site summarizes Burning:

BURNING is the searing examination of an alienated young man, Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a frustrated introvert whose already difficult life is complicated by the appearance of two people into his orbit: first, Haemi (newcomer Jong-seo Jun), a spirited woman who offers romantic possibility, and then, Ben (Steven Yeun, THE WALKING DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU), a wealthy and sophisticated young man she returns from a trip with. When Jongsu learns of Ben’s mysterious hobby and Haemi suddenly disappears, his confusion and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale.

It will be shown in 332 Cathedral of Learning from 6:00 to 9:00 pm and is free and open to the public.

2017 Korean film 1987: When the Day Comes at Pitt, March 22.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present the 2017 film 1987: When the Day Comes on March 22 as part of its annual Korean Film Festival. The distributor summarizes 1987:

In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a college student gets killed during a police interrogation involving torture. Government of officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release, raises questions about a 21-year-old kid dying of a heart attack, and he begins looking into the case for truth. Despite a systematic attempt to silence everyone involved in the case, the truth gets out, causing an eruption of public outrage.

The film will be shown in 332 Cathedral of Learning from 6:00 to 9:00 pm and is free and open to the public. Next Friday the department will present Burning (버닝) as the second installment of the series,

IUP hiring language instructor fluent in Japanese and Korean.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is again hiring a foreign language instructor fluent in Japanese and Korean to teach elementary-, intermediate-, and advanced-level courses in those languages. An excerpt from the job posting:

The Department of Foreign Languages at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) invites applicants for an anticipated full-time, and temporary faculty position for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Duties

• Teach elementary, intermediate, and advanced Japanese and Korean.
• The successful candidate may be asked to work at off-campus sites and/or provide instruction through distance education.

1987: When the Day Comes, Burning (버닝) at Pitt for annual Korean Film Festival, starting March 22.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present two Korean films for its 16th annual Korean Film Festival: 1987: When the Day Comes on March 22 and Burning (버닝) on March 29.

North Korea Beyond Politics, March 8 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host its final panel session of this North Korean series on Friday, March 8.

21 years of Korean Pirates.

Pitching prospect Byung-il Kim, (김병일) via 중앙일보.

Long before the Pittsburgh Pirates first started signing Asian prospects like Jung-ho Kang, Ji-hwan Bae, and Jin-de Jhang a few years ago, there have been some interesting intersections between the Pirates and Asian baseball. In 1965, the Pirates were set to tour Japan but the trip was cancelled that June, ostensibly due to the Pirates' "inferior drawing power" but in reality due to stalled contract negotiations with a Japanese baseball player. In 1975, the Pirates played, and lost to, the reigning Central League champion out of Nagoya, the Chunichi Dragons, who joined Pittsburgh in spring training that year. And, in the 1990s, the Pirates had a working agreement with one of the top pro teams in South Korea.

Forgot about Sumi's.

Photographs via @SumisCakery

How's the Tribune-Review going to write up "5 bakeries you may not have heard of but need to try" without mentioning Squirrel Hill's Sumi's Cakery? The only conclusion is that everyone knows Sumi's by now.



Sumi's Cakery is a Korean bakery located at 2118 Murray Ave. (map).

Tickets now available for "Yeonmi Park: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom," March 20 at Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

North Korean defector, author, and activist Yeonmi Park will speak at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty on March 20. Tickets are now available at $25 for students and military, $40 for general admission, and $85 for VIP.