Our mission is to inspire the public to embrace principles of good stewardship, engage in scientific discovery, and be immersed in the riches of history and culture by connecting with the most powerful birds in the world.

 

Rise Raptor Project (RISE), based in North Alabama, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation founded for the purpose of teaching the principles of good stewardship, sound science, conservation, history, and culture. Raptors (birds of prey) provide a unique avenue by which to communicate these principles in a memorable and meaningful way. We offer programs on a low cost basis, allowing us to reach thousands of people. RISE travels anywhere we are asked, and presents 50-85 presentations annually. We believe all people regardless of social or economic status should have these principles integrated into their lives and character in order to achieve their full potential. As a result of this policy we operate on a donation basis.

 

International Collaboration : Connecting Japan with the United States with Eagles

The people of Alabama have benefitted from government, business, and personal relationships with one of the USA’s greatest allied nations, Japan. RISE is collaborating with one of the best conservation rehabilitation, and research facilities in the world located in Kushiro, Hokkaido: Institute for Raptor Biomedicine Japan. As a result of this relationship, Japan will be sending RISE one of their non-releasable White Tailed Eagles. The White Tailed Eagle is considered one of Japan’s national treasures. This eagle will become one of our education ambassadors and participate in research for captive propagation. New education programs will include conservation issues currently facing eagles worldwide, as well as aspects of history and Japanese culture. This eagle will not only be an ambassador for its wild relatives and our environment, but it will be a unique and special ambassador of the Japanese people. We hope to develop long term relationships between Huntsville, Alabama and Kushiro, Hokkaido elementary schools as a result of this cultural exchange. One goal is to work with the children of Kushiro to name the new eagle. RISE is currently working with Japanese government ministries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in finalizing this transfer. Fund raising proceeds will be applied to expenses of transporting the eagle to the USA and the construction of a new eagle facility.

RISE is considering further work to establish several pairs of non-releasable White Tailed Eagles in a captive propagation program in Huntsville. This effort would result in continued eagle propagation research and education. Since the White Tailed Eagle is considered vulnerable/endangered in Japan, offspring would be sent back to Hokkaido to replace those birds lost due to injury. This work will require outside financial support.

 

The Rise Raptor Project Team

Curt Cearley – Executive Director, Principle Founder, Educator / Master Falconer, Raptor rehabilitation, research lead

Stephanie Kern – Avian rehabilitation expert, songbird specialty, educator, legal specialist

Lindsey Wilmer – Educator, rehabilitation expert – water fowl specialty

Tim Gels – Educator, Educator for State of Alabama

Robin Harris – Educator, assistant raptor training, equine behavior and training specialist

Christina Turner – Educator for State of Alabama, assistant raptor trainer, handler

Dan Meyer – World class performer sword swallower, Guinness World Record holder, entertainer, and motivational public speaker

Morgan Harker – Junior educator, assistant, raptor handler

Lorelei McElroy – Junior educator, assistant, raptor handler

 

5638 Highway 53, STE B-276, Harvest, AL 35749

Curt Cearley – Executive Director

www.riseraptor.org

www.facebook.com/riseraptorproject

info@riseraptor.org

256-270-4811

Lionbridge is looking for Social Media Evaluators to rate social media ads and other content for quality and relevancy in order to help our clients improve the Internet experience for all users.
We offer competitive pay, flexible hours, and the ability to work from home.  This is a temporary employment position for up to 12 months.
If hired, Social Media Evaluators must be able to complete all assigned tasks accurately and efficiently within timing and/or production standards or requirements.

Please find below and review all the projects details.

Work Schedule:

• Work from home;
• Part-time flexible schedule (day/night);
• Maximum 1 hour per day, self-directed schedule;
• At least 5 days per week;
• Maximum 7 hours per week.
• Rate is 19USD/per hour.

 

 

Basic Requirements:

• Computer with a secured high-speed Internet connection;
• iPhone or Android smartphone that is less than 3 years old;
• Fluency in written and spoken English;
• Good understanding of Japanese language;
• Active daily user of social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.);
• Must be living in Japan for at least the past 3 years;
• High level of cultural awareness and familiarity with current events in Japan including entertainment, shopping, business, media, sport, news and social media.

 

Preferred Experience:   

Experience in using web browsers to navigate online content and the ability to handle software issues such as installing applications and troubleshooting.

 

If you are interested, please proceed to take our evaluation questionnaire (it will take only 10-15 minutes). Click this link and register: https://goo.gl/2mXzUj

Once registered, you will need to take our short Social Media Evaluator Questionnaire, a basic (A2) English test and accept our Service Level Agreement (SLA).

1. Link to the questionnaire: https://www.workmarket.com/lms/view/details/14365
2. Link to the English test: https://www.workmarket.com/lms/view/details/14257
3. Link to the SLA: https://www.workmarket.com/groups/66961

Please click on the APPLY button in the top right corner of this page. The system will give you a message, that you don’t meet the requirements. Please ignore this message and press OK. “Master Service Level Agreement” will pop up, after the “Apply” button is clicked, please kindly scroll down to the bottom and accept it.

Kindly complete the above-mentioned step as soon as possible, so that we can consider you for this position.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 9, 2018

MEDIA CONTACT

Christina Burchette

cburchette@sistercities.org

202.347.4876

 

 

SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL ELECTS SHIN KOYAMADA TO THE NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

WASHINGTON, DC (August 9, 2018) – Sister Cities International (SCI) elected Shin Koyamada (小山田 真), Actor, Producer and Philanthropist of Los Angeles, California to the Board of Directors on August 3, 2018 at the 2018 Annual Conference in Aurora, Colorado. Koyamada was voted in by SCI’s individual member sister cities, counties, and states from all over the country.

 

“We are deeply honored to have Shin Koyamada join the Board of Directors and the Sister Cities International leadership team,” said Ron Nirenberg, Chairman of the SCI Board of Directors and Mayor of San Antonio, Texas. “His passion and contribution as a world citizen diplomat are inspiring and will help the organization to highlight the critical importance of the role of the everyday citizen in promoting world peace.”

 

Koyamada is the first native-born Japanese member of Sister Cities International’s Board of Directors, and also serves as the Country and Regional Representative for Japan and East Asia. He is originally from Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, Japan and immigrated to the United States in June of 2000. In 2004, Koyamada became best known to global audiences after his co-starring roles in the Warner Bros. blockbuster Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai, with a worldwide box office of $456 million. He starred in the Disney Channel hit TV movie Wendy Wu Homecoming Warrior, making it one of the highest viewed Disney Channel movies in the U.S and the highest rated kid’s channel in Europe, U.K. and Japan. He is Co-Founder and Chairman of KIF (Koyamada International Foundation) and Shinca Group CEO. He has dedicated a large portion of his life to philanthropic work that focuses on promoting the role and importance of citizen diplomacy, especially in empowering global youth and women and strengthening and deepening the ties between Japan, East Asia, and the United States. For more information about him, please visit http://ShinKoyamada.com.

 

Koyamada first become involved with Sister Cities International when he participated in the 60th San Jose-Okayama Sister Cities Anniversary in San Jose, California to support his hometown of Okayama, Japan. In July 2017, he was appointed to the SCI Board of Directors as the Young Professional Representative, and then elected as Director-at-Large this year. For Koyamada, the highlight of the 2018 Annual Conference was receiving the Chairman’s Award before hundreds of sister cities members for his tremendous contributions and achievements he made in the past year as a board member, including two international trips to Japan with two different U.S. delegations, nine separate domestic sister cities trips across the U.S., creating SCI Youth national branding, bringing in a major corporate sponsor, and more.

 

After his election, Koyamada stated, “I am sincerely honored to be elected to the Director-at-Large position by the Sister Cities International network, and I am looking forward to continuing my work with Sister Cities International to bridge global communities for world peace.”

“Lionbridge is an American company with headquarters in Massachusetts (USA) and offices in 26 countries. We deliver translation and localization, global content management, and application testing services to the world’s top brands. Currently we are urgently looking for Japanese native speakers over the age of 65 to participate in our paid Japanese Language Research Project.”

Please see below the project overview:

Lionbridge is helping to develop modern speech recognition systems for computers and mobile devices and is now starting a Japanese Language Research Project, which consists of collecting voice samples in Japanese. The task is simple and does not require any specific knowledge or previous experience. It can be performed from home, using a mobile device or computer. The entire project should take no longer than 45 minutes and each participant that successfully completes the task will receive $35 (USD) via PayPal or Direct Bank Transfer (via XendPay). Below you will find the task overview.

Timeline: As soon as possible.

Location: The task can be completed remotely from any location as long as there is a mobile device/computer with stable internet connection.

Requirement: Japanese native speaker in the age group of 65 years and older.

Task description: The participants will see sentences in Japanese and will need to record their voice while reading them aloud.

The duration of the task: approximately 45 minutes per participant.

Rate: 35 USD per participant for the entire task. The payment will be done via PayPal or Direct Bank Transfer (via XendPay). 5USD (per participant) can be provided to those who refer participants who successfully complete this study.

 

Interested candidates can register for the project by filling in this short registration form: https://fs30.formsite.com/LB2014/form294/index.html

 

Once the registration form has been completed and you have qualified to participate, our production team will contact you with additional details and instructions.

Kindly note that this is a one time task, you cannot participate again if you have already completed this project.

We offer a referral fee of 5 USD per person that you recommend for this project if they successfully complete the task. If you know many native speakers who would be interested in this project, please let us know and we will send you the details on how to proceed. Also, please ask candidates (referred by you) to write your name in other comments “Referred by <your name>”.

Visit us at:

Website: http://www.lionbridge.com/solutions/global-services-for-machine-intelligence/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LionMachineIntelligence/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lionbridge_GSMI

Instagram: http://instagram.com/lionbridge_gsmi

JASA has been notified of several positions available for individuals skilled in both English and Japanese.

EPAM Systems is looking to hire Japanese/English-proficient Systems and Software Engineers, a Team Lead, Team Manager and Quality Assurance Analyst. Job postings can be found below.

Team Manager

Team Lead

Systems Engineer

QA Developer

 

Akorbi is looking for two Japanese interpreters for work with Panasonic. Please contact interpreterjobs@akorbi.com

Alternatively, call 214-396-8236

Please let us know in the comments if you applied for any of these positions, or if you have a posting you would like advertised.

The JASA community is saddened by the passing of Charles Wesley Wood, 98, founder of the Mobile Japanese Garden and recipient of the Imperial Conferment of the Order of the Rising Sun, and the Gold and Silver Rays. The impact he left on the Mobile community will be remembered.

A link to the full obituary can be found here.

We’re back with another movie night! This time we’ll be celebrating the wonderful world of modern Japanese fashion with a presentation from designer and cosplayer Robin Ray and a screening of the award winning Japanese comedy Kamikaze Girls*. As always, we will have free Japanese snacks for everyone to try!

Robin Ray is an Alabama based artist, designer, and cosplayer. She specializes in Japanese lolita fashion and has modeled for Japan’s most famous lolita fashion store, “Baby The Stars Shine Bright.” You can see her work on her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/hellomermaid/ Robin will also have some of her crafts for sale. We here at JASA are pleased to have her present!

Kamikaze Girls (下妻物語――ヤンキーちゃんとロリータちゃん) is the story of the unlikely friendship —and ensuing chaos— that forms between Momoka and Ichiko, who wear contrasting fashion styles: lolita and Yanki.
For a quick rundown on Japanese fashion, please check out its Wikipedia page.

Schedule: 5:30 pm- Doors open
5:45- Presentation from Robin Ray
6:30- Movie Screening Kamikaze Girls
8:00- Hanashikai – Socialize with your fellow attendees!
9:00- Good night!

Click here for the Facebook event page.
RSVP here.

Admission for the event: a donation of any amount to the Japan America Society of Alabama, pay what you want!

*Kamikaze Girls is rated PG-13. Robin Ray’s presentation will be for all ages.

Welcome to our new series of interviews with the local JASA community. To kick things off, we interviewed our former intern Junho Jeong!

Junho Jeong has been interning at the Japan-America Society of Alabama for the past six months. He is a Japanese and Financial Engineering major at Korea University in Seoul, Korea. He’s been studying Japanese since 2011 and English since childhood.

Q: What brought you to Alabama and to JASA?
“I participated in the Korea West Program, a joint program between the Korean Government and the US Department of State, so I was in Texas for three months and then got matched with JASA for an internship by the Program.”

Q: What do you at JASA?
“So I usually do social media stuff: I post Japan related news on our Facebook page and website and translate the posts into Japanese too. I also get the opportunity to participate in our board meetings and cultural events. I also do our ‘Japan in a Suitcase’ presentation.”

Q: What have you learned from working at JASA?
“I’ve learned how to manage a company’s website and see how that all works. Also, translating English into Japanese is quite an experience. And, I think if you’re a foreigner, you get so many opportunities to make friends, a lot of friends, around here. Like at our monthly dinner Kayobikai.”

Q: English is your third language and Japanese your second; what is it like working in your non-native languages?
“I just think it’s cool, it’s so cool!
When it comes to working in English I think it’s much easier because I know so much more grammar. I’ve been learning English grammar for so long and it made me realize that you never really learn grammar in your first language [Korean]. It’s also a really interesting experience to notice how people make sentences or express their feelings in different ways, depending on what culture you’ve been raised in.”

Q: What got you interested in Japan?
“The reason I got interested in Japan is that I wanted to be a journalist covering issues in East Asia. Since Korea is an ally with Japan and the US, I thought it is critical to understand the history between the nations and why we became allies. When I was a high school student, I felt like I needed to get exposed to Japanese articles too to get more correct information and not to be biased. That was the first time I started learning Japanese.”

Q: What have you liked about living in Alabama?
“People! It’s really different from what I expected. When I googled Alabama -I had never heard of Alabama before I came here- I noticed it had not a very good reputation with various problems, and even my teachers in Austin were worried about me going to Alabama with no one I know. But, it turned out it was not like that at all; people were so warm and sweet hearted. Everyone I met here has been understanding and, I think most of all, it has been really precious for me to be in a family orientated culture in my life. It’s been really cool just to get a family dinner or have a Christmas party, or Easter or any kind of holidays spent with family members here, and to be part of those events was so nice. I will never forget southern hospitality I got here.”

Q: What’s next for you?
“I have three semesters left at my University and am planning on learning more about finances. I’m planning to apply for a Japanese company and am seriously thinking of applying for Dai-ichi Protective Life [headquartered in Birmingham] so I can maybe come back here. That’s how much I liked living here.”

“Thank you for having me here and thanks to JASA for having me here. I enjoyed it a lot!”

Celeste Pfau, a gifted young Birmingham artist, will soon begin work as an artist-in-residence at Moriumius in Ogatsu, Japan. Moriumius is an area of Tohoku hard hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami; the organization aims to bring about healing through nature-focused programs. Celeste’s work includes creating beautiful prints using plant materials and will contribute to the mission of Moriumius, reconnecting children with nature.

Celeste received the honor of “emerging artist” at the Magic City Art Connection and is one of the driving forces as a community organizer in the Art Town East Lake Project working to make East Lake a hub for the arts in Birmingham.

During her time in Japan, Celeste will be traveling to Gunma prefecture, home to Birmingham’s sister city, Maebashi.

http://moriumius.jp/en/ (Learn more about Moriumius here)

One year ago today, July 3rd 2017, Birmingham formalized a Sister City relationship with Maebashi, Japan. Maebashi had previously been a Friendship City since 1998. Maebashi is the birthplace of famed poet Hagiwara Sakutaro and hosts an expansive Museum of Literature, which also features Birmingham poet Samuel Ullman.
Learn more about Birmingham’s Sister Cities Program here and visit Maebashi’s English language site.