Every year, Willamette welcomes students from its sister university in Japan, Tokyo International University (TIU). Attending college in a completely different country is helping the TIU students grow their English skills, allowing them to communicate and connect with people of all cultures. What are these students learning in Willamette? What surprised them? What are their motivations? Here are three TIU students and their experiences studying abroad at Willamette.
Suzuha Oshima (’27)
Oshima is studying abroad in Willamette for one year and majoring in English communications. Oshima became interested in English in junior high school because she “really likes new things” and “was interested in how other languages are used.” Oshima has wanted to study abroad since high school, so she found that TIU was the perfect choice for her because of the American Studies Program.
The American class style appeals to Oshima because of how discussion-based it is. In Japan, classes are mostly lectures, so she appreciates the change. She was also pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the people at Willamette. “In Japan, if you don’t know someone well, it's really uncommon to talk to them,” Oshima said. Since Oshima loves to talk to people, she finds it nice that at Willamette, people come up and start a conversation.
Oshima’s dreams of the future stem from communication. When she went to Tokyo Disneyland, she saw that foreigners who couldn’t speak Japanese were having a difficult time due to language barriers. Motivated by this, Oshima wants to improve her English and one day work as a Tokyo Disneyland staff member and help foreign visitors with her ability to translate. By studying at Willamette, Oshima hopes to step closer to that dream by getting her “English skills almost the same as native speakers.”
Kyosuke Yamamoto (’27)
Yamamoto is studying at Willamette for the next year and is also majoring in English communications. He has been studying English in-depth for a year and a half. He joined the American Studies Program at TIU because of how easy it is to study abroad through the program and he knows that “TIU and Willamette have a very good relationship.”
Yamamoto is so far liking the nature Oregon has to offer and “the facilities of Willamette, like Sparks Gym.” He likes how the classrooms are close to the dormitories and especially enjoys the discussion-based class styles. Willamette’s small class sizes appeal to Yamamoto because it makes it “easy to focus and easy to listen.”
One of Yamamoto’s motivations for studying English is that he “really likes having international friends.” TIU, being an international school, has many foreign students, so Yamamoto’s friends are “40% Japanese and 60% foreigners.” He added, “They all come from different countries and backgrounds. I really like talking about their cultures.” He hopes that through his time at Willamette, he will be able to “speak English better and make friends!”
Ayaka Takahashi (’27)
Takahashi will be studying at Willamette for nine months as an ASP student and is majoring in economics. Her future goals are to work in marketing abroad from Japan. Takahashi has been studying English for six years. “English is a common language, so if I speak more English more frequently, it’s easier to make friends and makes communicating easy,” Takahashi remarked.
Takahashi has enjoyed Willamette and Oregon so far; she likes how the “air is so clean,” noted that “the tap water is very good,” and added that people are kind at Willamette. Takahashi is taking classes all taught in English, with some ASP-exclusive like Current Topics in the U.S. Something she was pleasantly surprised by was the effort people at Willamette put into respecting gender identities. The culture of introducing oneself with pronouns was a new experience for Takahashi and she said, “We can make sure what gender people are so it's so good!”
Studying abroad at Willamette is helping Takahashi “learn about American culture” and how to speak more English than the basics taught in school. She hopes that by the end of her stay, she will have the ability to “get a higher score in TOEIC (English Language Proficiency Test)” and expand her English vocabulary.
The TIU students’ excitement to communicate with others and strengthen their English skills illustrates the importance of connecting to other cultures and having an open mindset. Willamette serves as an important bridge allowing Japan and the U.S. to connect and learn from each other.
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