JETAA Queensland Activities
– Articles and photos by Richard Wilding, President, JETAA Queensland –
August 2014: Trivia Afternoon
The trivia event is one of the highlights of the JETAA Calendar and this year we had a new venue at the Gardens Club Café overlooking the sun-dappled City Botanic Gardens. Around 40 people attended for an afternoon of warm company and friendly rivalry with teams representing sister cities from around Queensland. The famous Ken and Keith Parker (our favourite Quiz Masters) returned to host another legendary trivia event. Congratulations to the Nerima-Ipswich team for being crowned 2014 champions!
MLTAQ Japanese Speech Contest
JETAA QLD is proud to support the Modern Language Teachers Association of Queensland Japanese Speech Contest on the Gold Coast. This year we provided funding for prizes and members helped judge the entries. We hope that our small contribution will encourage students to consider the JET Programme as a way of deepening their understanding of Japanese people, language and culture.
October 2014: Hanami
October in Brisbane is Jacaranda time and what better chance to welcome the warm sultry weather of spring than a Japanese-style hanami picnic in historic New Farm Park? This has become one of JETAA Queensland’s signature events and every year attracts family and friends of JET alumni, our friends from the Consulate General of Japan, staff and students from Griffith University and the University of Queensland.
It provides a great opportunity for Australian students of Japanese to gain an insight into the JET Programme experience; this year, we were also joined by exchange students from Hyogo.
Hanami is a very family-friendly event and we were happy to see a few new families, older children and even parents-to-be come along to chat and join in some games.
This year we also instigated a book-swap with the idea that people can exchange Japanese-related books for reading or study. Recently, the committee has been discussing ways of making the association’s events more relevant to older JET alumni whose increasing responsibilities have perhaps meant JETAA events are less accessible. We feel hanami is a good model for events which are inclusive, affordable and convenient enough to encourage a wide range of alumni and community members to stay engaged with JETAA.
January 2015: Oshogatsu Dinner
We returned to Nonbei Sake Bar and BBQ in Fortitude Valley for our Oshogatsu networking dinner. About 20 members, family and friends attended for an evening of great food and the chance to catch up with other alumni after the end-of-year break. We celebrated the Year of the Sheep with some sheepish trivia about Japan and Australia.
Events to come include the University of Queensland Careers Fair, Bento on the Broadwater on the Gold Coast and our AGM in April where we hope to finalise plans some great new events in 2015-16.
Ja, mata!
Richard Wilding, President
