Dear Graduate Students in Asian Studies:

We are going to finally establish a  and a JAPANESE HOUSE at
BU!  Could you offer your candidacy or help us find suitable candidates as Resident Assistants? 
See message below.

Please directly contact Prof. Cathy Yeh: yeh@bu.edu

Thanks. E. Menegon

===========================

From Prof. Cathy Yeh (Modern Languages and Comp Lit.)

CHINESE HOUSE and JAPANESE HOUSE

These are two recently renovated brownstones on Bay State Road; they will be
ready for students starting in 2008-09.

207 Bay State Road (currently Music House):  23 students + RA
172 Bay State Road (currently Russian House): 14 students + RA

One is for Chinese and the other is for Japanese students; who gets what is still to be decided.

STUDENTS: The house is not conceived as a cultural house, but as language-learning community.

Students must be majors or minors or, at a minimum, enrolled in our language courses. 

Native speakers are welcome if they are also taking our classes, but we wouldn't want a situation where (e.g.) Chinese House gets filled with students who grew up speaking Chinese and want to be with others like themselves, such that the true language-learners feel intimidated or shut out.

RA: Urgent priority: finding prospective RA's.  Without an appropriate RA the houses will not function as they should, and we need to find viable RA candidates.  This must be done in the few remaining weeks of the fall term.  Prospective RA's must attend an information session and apply between Nov. 27 and Jan. 17 (sessions are listed, along with application materials, at
  http://www.bu.edu/reslife/employment/apply/

-- and note that Jan. 17 is the second day of the spring term.  Graduate students (e.g. those teaching our courses) are eligible if they are enrolled
full time. Advanced undergraduates capable of fostering the language-rich environment are welcome to apply also.  RA's, for their part, may be native
speakers not taking MLCL courses, as long as they are committed to creating an environment and activities that are helpful for learners.  There's one RA per house, but a pool of several applicants is highly desirable.  An RA gets free housing in exchange for 20 hours a week of work (but some of that is just leaving your door open, I'm pretty sure).  MLCL doesn't choose the RA's -- they have to be mature, suitable for the job in other ways, etc., and Res Life does the interviewing -- but our recommendations are one important piece.