Pittsburgh-based WholeRen Education (美国厚仁教育集团) hiring bilingual Mandarin-English Education Sales Consultants.

Pittsburgh-based Chinese education consulting and placement firm WholeRen Education (美国厚仁教育集团) has announced openings for Mandarin-speaking Education Sales Consultants.

Ineffable Cà Phê owner and family opening Phat's bar in Oakland this month.

via @phats418

Phat's is scheduled to open on Semple St. in Oakland on January 21, 2021. It's located at 418 Semple in the spot formerly occupied by Panther House Bar & Grill. It will be owned and run by the family behind Ineffable Cà Phê, a Vietnamese cafe that opened in Lawrenceville in 2017.

Atarashi, formerly known as Sushi Fuku, to open a South Hills location this spring.

Atarashi, the new name of the small Oakland chain formerly known as Sushi Fuku, aims to open a South Hills location in May 2021. It will be located at 1720 Washington Rd. (map), across the street from South Hills Village Mall.

Two of the Sushi Fuku locations in Oakland rebranded as Atarashi---meaning new in Japanese---in August; the South Craig St. location split with ownership and retains the Sushi Fuku name.

Lawrenceville's Pusadee's Garden reopens on January 5; in-person dining by reservation only.

by Hal B. Klein for Pittsburgh Magazine.

Pusadee's Garden in Lawrenceville has reopened as of yesterday and is taking in-person diners by online advance reservationo only. The restaurant closed at the end of 2017 for renovations and was originally scheduled to open on December 3, but delays related to COVID-19 pushed the opening back. It is located at 5319 Butler St. (map).

芋见BAO now open in Oakland, offering dim sum, noodle dishes, bubble tea, and more.

芋见BAO has now opened in Oakland, in the spot formerly occupied by Night Market Gourmet and TOP Shabu Shabu. The old Night Market Gourmet website points to the new restaurant, where the menu offers a variety of dim sum, dumplings, noodle dishes, bubble tea, and more; the new website is meetbaopgh.com and online ordering is available. It is located at 114 Atwood St. (map).

Shadyside rental company hiring Mandarin-speaking office aide.

A Shadyside rental company is hiring a Mandarin-speaking office aide for an apartment complex.

Chinese (Mandarin native fluency) speaking office help needed in busy apartment rental office.

Typical duties include:

Answering telephones

Helping customers with needs

Posting advertisements

Scheduling appointments

General office tasks

Helping show apartments to customers

Please email this office with your resume.

Thanks!

Job Type: Full-time Salary: $18.00 - $21.00 per hour

Online presentation of documentary Edo Avant Garde, January 21 with Pitt's Asian Studies Center.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host an online screening of the 2019 documentary Edo Avant Garde, along with a discussion with the director, on January 21.

Edo Avant-Garde reveals the untold story of the vital role Japanese artists of the Edo era (1603 – 1868) played in developing “modern art.” During the Edo era, Japan prospered in peaceful isolation from Western powers, while audacious artists innovated abstraction, minimalism, surrealism and the illusion of 3-D. Their originality is most striking in images of the natural world depicted with gold leaf on large-scale folding screens that anticipate 20th century installation art. In groundbreaking interviews with scholars and priests, the film traces the artists' original visions to their reverence for nature, inspired by Buddhism and Shinto animism.

The event begins at 7:00 pm with an introduction by director Linda Hoaglund; the movie begins at 7:15 and is followed by a discussion with Hoaglund at 8:45 pm. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required.

Work progresses on new "Chat Time" in Squirrel Hill, but it's bubble tea is coming soon.

In November, signage went up for "Chatime" in Squirrel Hill, though December paperwork says the restaurant and bubble tea shop will be called "Chat Time." It passed a December 7 health department inspection, and has put up a menu online, though work progreses. It will be located at 5867 Forbes Ave (map), in what was most recently Capriccio Boutique.

Asian Paper Lantern Festival coming to Pittsburgh Zoo in 2021.

The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium will hold an Asian Paper Lantern Festival in the second half of 2021. Dates have not been confirmed, though the planned event was first publicized during the holiday season's Zoo Lights Drive-Thru. The Cleveland Zoo has had a similar lantern festival for the past few years, though the northeastern Ohio city has tended to have more visible Asian events (1, 2).

Five years ago I mused that Pittsburgh should have its own riverfront lantern festival, like Jinju famously does in South Korea, and still maintain this would be an excellent use of the city's three rivers during warmer months. via jinju.go.kr

Virtual Japanese-English Reading Circle with Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania, continues from January 9.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania's Japanese-English Reading Circle, which had in-person meetings in Shadyside prior to COVID-19, will resume again online from January 9.

Mission: to promote language learning through reading and language exchange. We aim to keep positivity and motivation high while developing reading fluency, vocabulary, content discussion, and reading strategies in a fun, collaborative environment.

Meetings: will consist of icebreaker language games, discussions about book topics, questions about language, formation of reading goals, and reading strategy sharing/reflection

Who can join: Japanese learners of English or English-speaking learners of Japanese. Any proficiency level is okay, although it would help to have at least beginner level knowledge of the second language you are studying. You can also sign up for the Facebook group or Google group for reminders.

Virtual meetings are held roughly every two Saturdays---January 9, January 16, February 6, February 20, March 6, March 20---and those interested should email the JASP or connect with its Facebook or Google groups.