Squirrel Hill's STO Express (申通快递) "abruptly" closes, moves out.

Squirrel Hill's STO Express (申通快递) is empty today after the Chinese express mail service closed: "abruptly" closed, in the words of the landlord.

Duolingo hiring Teaching Expert, Mandarin Chinese.

Duolingo, the online language-learning platform, does not yet offer a Mandarin Chinese course, but it is preparing for one. It is hiring a Teaching Expert, Mandarin Chinese to work at its Pittsburgh headquarters (or to work remotely in-sync with its business hours).

Use your expertise in teaching Mandarin Chinese to help Duolingo users learn better.

Duolingo is looking for an experienced Mandarin Chinese language instructor who is a native or a near-native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. If you have experience designing Mandarin Chinese language curricula and creating different types of language exercises, as well as some linguistic training, this position is perfect for you.

Responsibilities:

• Help design a new curriculum for our Mandarin Chinese course.
• Create course content that effectively teaches a variety of skills, including pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
• Provide high quality translations from Mandarin Chinese to English, and from English to Mandarin Chinese.

Requirements:

• Strong interest in the mission of Duolingo.
• Experience teaching Mandarin Chinese as a second language (ideally at college level and to native speakers of English).
• Native or near-native fluency in Mandarin Chinese.
• Linguistic training is a big plus.
• Basic computer skills (Google docs, spreadsheets).
• Ability to work 20-40 hours a week.

Duolingo was founded in 2011 by a team from Carnegie Mellon University and is located at 5900 Penn Ave. in East Liberty (map).

Lawrenceville's Ki Ramen to hold soft opening, August 2.

Pittsburgh has been looking forward to Ki Ramen since it was first announced last summer, and the new ramen place will hold its soft opening tomorrow night, August 2.

It's that time! The pop up events were great but now we are excited to invite you to come and take it easy at our house.

Come and join us for our soft opening this Wednesday, August 2nd from 5 pm - 12 am at our freshly painted location on the corner of 44th and Butler Street in Lawrenceville.

We will be serving select items from our full menu that include our unique Ramens + Add on's, Snacks, and Cocktails. Meat lovers bring your vegetarian friends because we will have something for everyone.

Ki Ramen is located at 4401 Butler St. in Lawrenceville (map), and is a collaboration between Roger Li of Umami (an izakaya that opened in the neighborhood last year) and Domenic Branduzzi of Piccolo Forno.

Panda Express to open in Fox Chapel.

Panda Express, a national chain of drive-thru fast-casual Chinese restaurants, will open its next location in the Pittsburgh area in Fox Chapel, near the intersection of Fox Chapel and Freeport Roads. It recently started advertising job openings at its Fox Chapel restaurant. It first opened in the Pittsburgh area last summer, and has locations in Cranberry, Moneroeville, and West Mifflin.

Japanese rock group ONE OK ROCK at Mr. Smalls, August 6.

The Japanese rock group ONE OK ROCK will play at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale on August 6 as part of its Ambitions US Tour.

First Bilingual Chinese Storytime at Carnegie Library in Sheraden, August 5.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch in Sheraden will hold its first Bilingual Chinese Storytime on August 5 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Celebrate our city’s diverse culture as we explore new words through songs, action rhymes and stories in both English and Chinese. This bilingual program is for children birth to 5 years and their caregivers.

Chinese storytimes are regularly held at the library branches in Oakland and Squirrel Hill. The Sheraden branch is located at 720 Sherwood Ave. (map), and is accessible by buses 28X, G2, G3, and G31 via the West Busway at Sheraden Station stop.

July 27, 1959: "End of the Road for Chinatown".

On July 27, 1959, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette used the demolition of two buildings on downtown's Third Avenue to proclaim the end of Pittsburgh's Chinatown, which had been sharply declining in size and population for decades.

Pitt still hiring part-time Chinese instructors for Fall 2017.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures is again accepting resumes for part-time Chinese-language instructor positions for the Fall 2017 term through August 10.

EALL anticipates openings for part-time instructors in the Chinese language program beginning in the fall 2017. Candidates must have native language proficiency, hold at least a college degree, and be authorized to work for the University. Prior experience in teaching foreign languages and familiarity with CALL, language pedagogy or linguistics is highly preferred. If interested, please send your CV and a sample lesson plan designed for college-level Chinese class to Fan Fan at fanfan at pitt.edu by August 10. Candidates with desirable qualifications will be contacted for interview and teaching demonstration. Interview and teaching demonstration will take place during 8/16-8/17.

New Chinese movie Wolf Warrior 2 (战狼2) in Pittsburgh, from July 28.

The 2017 Chinese action movie Wolf Warrior 2 (战狼2) will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront Theater from July 28. A synopsis, from the distributor:

The Wolf Warrior is back, bigger and badder than ever, in this action-packed sequel to the 2015 blockbuster hit. With his career in tatters, China’s deadliest Special Forces operative has settled into a quiet life on the sea. But when he crosses paths with a sadistic band of mercenaries terrorizing innocent civilians, he must reaffirm his duty as a soldier and save the day once again. Fists (and bullets, tanks, missiles and much more) will fly in this adrenaline-fueled tour de force of bravura action filmmaking, all culminating into a climactic battle between the Wolf Warrior and the mercenary leader (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War).

The original Wolf Warrior movie topped the Chinese box office its opening weekend in 2015. Tickets and showtimes are available from Fandango. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

HCL Technologies hiring Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for position onsite at Google.

HCL Technologies is hiring a Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for a position working onsite at Google in Larimer. The posting, via Monster.com:
Summary:

Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst is a full-time job through HCL America, Inc. onsite at Google Pittsburgh. You will work to enhance users’ online shopping experience by performing in-depth product research, analyzing the user query stream, and improving query classifier performance using highly technical internal tools and processes. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams. Native or near-native Japanese reading/writing fluency is preferred and spending significant time living/working in the Japanese culture is a plus.