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What is Tsunagaaru?
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- About TJF
- Aims of Tsunagaaru
- How to participate in Tsunagaaru
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About TJF
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About TJF
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The Japan Forum was established in 1987 with an endowment of 2 billion yen provided by six companies (Kodansha Ltd., New Oji Paper Co., Ltd., Dai Nippon Printing Col., Ltd, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Toppan Printing Co. Ltd., and Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. and approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. TJF operating costs are drawn from the interest on its endowment of 2 billion yen as well as additional donations from the founders, the annual dues of individual and corporate members of the foundation, revenue from programs, and other sources. Operating expenses for fiscal 2006 were 147,073,950 yen.
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Aims and Purposes
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TJF aims at promoting mutual understanding among elementary and secondary school students by supporting foreign language education and education for intercultural understanding. It supports Japanese language education and education for intercultural understanding for elementary and secondary students overseas as well as undertakes programs in Japan promoting the teaching of Chinese and Korean languages as well as education for intercultural understanding, mainly for high school students.
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Contact information:
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Aims of Tsunagaaru
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Forum for communication among secondary students all over the world
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At Tsunagaaru secondary students of diverse social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds can come together to exchange views and talk about their daily lives. It seeks to be a forum that will broaden participants' perspectives and help them establish rapport and affinity with others while deepening understanding of themselves. Tsunagaaru offers young people the opportunity for real-time, immediate contact with many different kinds of people of their own generation, but people living in a broad spectrum of social contexts. It is designed to foster the capacity to communicate with people raised in different environments and who may have different opinions and values. We hope students of Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean will take this opportunity to put to practical use the language they are studying.
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Multidirectional exchange
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On Tsunagaaru, we move a step beyond bilateral exchange experienced heretofore between, for example, Japanese and American high school students or Chinese and Japanese junior high school students, seeking to realize a shared place for multidirectional exchange where secondary students of many different countries can freely exchange views. To facilitate this kind of exchange we have created the apparatus to enable reading and writing in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean on the site. TJF will assist by translating participants' messages from one language into another or by providing links to translation sites.
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For a secure environment
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Our goal is to create a website where secondary students can engage in stimulating and enjoyable exchange without concerns about security or invasion of their privacy. In order to guarantee your security and privacy, TJF will confirm registration information with schools and contact parents/guardians for agreement to your participation. TJF will also check all messages before they are posted on the side to assure that personal information is not made public and to prevent abuse of the site.
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Linking for direct exchange
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In addition to exchange via the website we hope to realize opportunities for direct face-to-face exchange. For the programs of direct exchange, we will ask participants to register at Tsunagaaru at the preliminary stage preparing the way for a more meaningful experience upon meeting in person. We will also present the results of activities undertaken in the direct exchange programs on Tsunagaaru, where they can be widely shared with secondary students all over the world.
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How to participate in Tsunagaaru
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Who can participate
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Anyone who is a secondary school student (junior high or middle school, senior high school, etc.) and 12 years of age or older. If you are not sure whether your school fits in this category, please send a query to TJF. Once you have registered, you will be able to access Tsunagaaru until you graduate, unless you withdraw your membership.
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Applying for participation
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- First, go to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy statement and read them carefully. Please proceed to fill out the Registration Form if you are in agreement with content of the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy statement.
- Fill out the items on the Registration Form and press send.
- Download the Agreement Form (PDF/Word), fill in the items specified, and be sure to have it signed by your parent or guardian before sending by post or fax to TJF.
- Once it has received your registration information and Agreement Form, TJF will contact the school and the homeroom, Japanese-language, or other teacher the registrant has indicated on the form to confirm his or her attendance at the school. In advance please be sure to inform the teacher you wrote on your registration form that they will be contacted by TJF in order to confirm your enrollment in the school.
- When a student's registration information has been confirmed, you will receive an email message from TJF. Once you receive this email, you will be able to log in to Tsunagaaru. It is usually about three weeks from the time you submit the above two documents until you can log on to Tsunagaaru.
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Fee (no charge)
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Tsunagaaru is operated free of charge to users. No registration or other fees are required.
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What you can do at Tsunagaaru
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Tsunagaaru is an SNS (social networking service) site. You can do the same kinds of things on Tsunagaaru that you can do via mixi or MySpace.
At your "My Page," you can introduce yourself or post essays or other writings. What you write is up to you; it can be a kind of diary you keep every day or a place to post what you write when you want to write it. You can also post comments on other participant's essays or write replies to comments received on your own writing.
At "Community" you can participate in discussion of various themes of common interest along with participants from many different countries. You can also obtain the latest information on the direct exchange programs being conducted by TJF.
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Languages used on Tsunagaaru
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The main languages in use on Tsunagaaru will be Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean, but it is actually possible to post messages or essays in any language. When posting comments on the essays/writings of others, however, it is most considerate to use the language of the author or the language that person is studying. You will find that most participants outside Japan are studying Japanese and that the vast majority of Japanese participants are studying English. Among Japanese participants, too, some will be studying Chinese, Korean, and other languages.
As the Community discussion deepens, you may find that you would prefer to write in your native language rather than another language. Please do write in the language you are most comfortable with. When TJF sees that your comment is of great interest, we will have it translated into other languages (e.g., English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).
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