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Help: How to Navigate the Cross Currents Site

How to Navigate the Cross Currents Site

Cross Currents Home Page

Cross Currents can be navigated in two languages, English and Japanese. To switch to Japanese from English, click on "日本語サイト" in the upper-right hand corner of the page.

There are three major "themes" you can find information on in this website:

Red = Learn About Japan
Yellow = Learn About Cross Currents (cultural exchange between Japan and the US)
Blue = Learn About the US

Click on one of the topics listed under each theme to see more information on that topic.

A menu of subtopics for the selected topic will appear in a colored box in the middle of the screen. Click on one of the subtopics to see more information on that subject.

A list of articles will appear in the colored box. Click on one of these articles to see content on that subject.

The content article for that subject will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.

To select a different article, click on another article listed in the colored box. You can also switch to another topic in the same theme by clicking on one of the topics listed on the far left side of the screen.

Let's look at the content article more closely. There are several features available to help you learn more about the content.

On the top left, just above the title of the article, there is an option to listen to a reading of the article. Click on "English" or "Japanese" to hear the article in that language.

On the top right, just above the picture in the article, there is an option to switch the language of the text. Click on "English" or "Japanese" to view the article in that language. This will only switch the language for the content article, and not for the rest of the website.

At the bottom, below the article, there is an option to download an audio podcast version of that article in mp3 format. Click on "English" or "Japanese" to download the mp3 in that language.

Below the podcast option, there is a list of extra types of content that may be available for the article. Available content will appear in white, while content that is not available will be listed in dark grey. Clicking on an available type of content will bring up that content in a new window. You must have pop-up windows enabled in your browser in order to see the content.

Some articles also have a list of special terms at the bottom of the article. Clicking on one of these terms brings up that term's entry in the glossary in a new window.

The glossary provides an explanation of the term in both English and Japanese, and gives the spelling of the term in English, hiragana/katakana, and Japanese, plus three different forms of romanization. Any of these forms of input can be used to search the glossary.

You can use the color bar across the top of the screen to switch to another theme, or return to the main page (by clicking "Home").

At the top right of any page in the Cross Currents website, there are several features available to help you find content.

Search: The search feature will look for words in content article titles. Type a keyword into the search box and hit enter or click on the icon to the right of the box. You can search in both English and Japanese.

Resources: Click on this link to see the Resources page. From there, you can view activities, search for terms in the glossary, and look for podcast files by theme and topic.

About Us: Click on this link to see more about the development of this website.

日本語サイト: Click on this link to switch the website language to Japanese.

Featured Content: On the main page, the Featured Content box shows a preview of a random article on the website. Click on the preview to see the full article.