This message was originally submitted by [log in to unmask] to the LLTI list at LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU. As "older" IALLTers know IALLT has had a very close and long-lasting relationship with our counterpart in Japan. In fact IALLT decided on its current name (very similar name at least) in Japan in a meeting of North Americans and Japanese in the early 80s. This past August the Language and Educational Technology (LET) Association of Japan invited your Past President, your President-Elect, one of our other Past Presidents and me to attend LET's 50th anniversary conference in Yokohama, Japan. Three other IALLTers also attended this conference, including our new President-Elect and our moderator of LLTI. To say that we received exceptional hospitality would be an understatement. Last night I posted on Facebook saying how much I missed Japan and that I had had a "homesick" moment last week. How ironic that I posted that a couple of hours before this horrorific natural disaster. As your IALLT President I sent the following note to the President of LET. Following that is his reply I received a few minutes ago: "On behalf of the IALLT board let me express our concern regarding the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. All of us are following events there as well as we can here. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We do hope and pray that no LET member will have been adversely affected by this horrible act of nature. Sent with our very warmest regards, Mike, for the IALLT Board. --- Dear Ledgerwood-sensei and IALLT board members, Thank you so much for your message. Fortunately, the earthquake did not hit the western area of Japan where I live, although Tsunami warnings have been issued in coastal areas all over Japan since yesterday afternoon. But I am afraid that the northern part of Japan has severe damage. The whole picture of the damage is still unknown even in Japan. I am now trying to get info about LET members in the region. I will let you know if I get some info. Thanks again for your concern and prayers. Osamu Takeuchi, President of LET --- Osamu TAKEUCHI, Ph.D. Dean, Professor of Applied Linguistics Faculty of Foreign Language Studies/ Graduate School of Foreign Language Ed. and Research Kansai University, Osaka, Japan http://www2.ipcku.kansai-u.ac.jp/~takeuchi/ " How heartbreaking this is.... *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning Technology (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Anthony Helm, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************