A Slippery Rock University professor has contributed to a chapter in a scholarly book, bringing awareness to the importance of cultural exchange and international experiences for the development of students.
Yukako Ishimaru, an SRU professor of languages, literatures, cultures, and writing, served as translator and author for the chapter in the book “The Linguistic Landscape of Higher Education Internationalization,” published by Palgrave Macmillan. Ishimaru’s chapter, titled “Japanese University Students and U.S. Immersion Programming: Developing English Competence and Global Perspectives,” was created in collaboration with Miyasaki International University professor Hironori Hayase and fellow SRU faculty member Marnie Petray-Covey, associate professor of languages, literatures, cultures, and writing.
The chapter is focused on Ishimaru’s primary research interest, which is also the force that drives much of her work in the classroom. As a professor of Japanese language and culture, Ishimaru is interested in the development of cultural competence and the ways in which real, firsthand contact with spoken language and lived culture foster the development of cultural competency.
A traditional example of this kind of firsthand international experience is students spending a semester abroad, an experience that Ishimaru recommends, but she also recognizes the barriers that stand between many students and studying abroad.
“It’s a privilege to study abroad,” Ishimaru explained. “Cost is a very real barrier, but time and the credits a student needs can also complicate things.”
The article that she contributed to analyzed decreases in the number of Japanese students studying abroad. It was found that the implementation of short-term, study-abroad trips that were more financially manageable and fit more easily into students’ schedules led to an increase in students who then went abroad for a semester or more.
One of these short-term programs is the Saga University immersion program which sends SRU students to Japan and also welcomes Japanese students to SRU, allowing both groups to develop firsthand international experiences. In the classroom, Ishimaru fosters opportunities for SRU students to have conversations with Japanese students.
“When the students have these conversations with one another, they find that they have a lot in common,” Ishimaru said. “It’s very impactful for people to see that someone who they think is so different from them can be so similar. Experiences like that help us to really understand that we’re all human beings.”
The ability to have these conversations across cultural and linguistic barriers can also help students in an increasingly global job market, allowing them to hone skills of communication that ensure that they can make themselves understood respectfully in any setting.
“The point of the humanities is to foster people’s humanity and to find ways of relating to and understanding one another and to communicate,” Ishimaru said. “Experiences like these help us to do that, and the importance of that is monumental.”
More information about languages, literatures, cultures, and writing can be found on the department’s webpage. Information regarding study abroad can be found on the study abroad webpage.