Intensive English Immersion Course Hosts Japanese Students, Looks to Expand
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3751
ORONO — An intensive English language immersion course at the University of Maine has proven so successful with visiting Japanese students that the program’s director is considering expanding it to other cultures.
Through the program, which is now in its fourth year, about 20 Japanese students from Hirosaki University, UMaine’s sister university in Japan, visit the Orono campus each year to study English, visit surrounding communities and also learn about culture in Maine.
Some of the students are so inspired by their visit that they return to matriculate as full time students, according to Christopher Mares, director of the university’s Intensive English Institute, which operates through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“This is a model that we think has been very successful and we’re interested in developing relationships with other countries,” Mares says.
Seventeen Japanese students from Hirosaki arrived at the Orono campus Feb. 21 to begin the three-week language immersion course, which includes living with university staff and faculty, and with families in surrounding communities. The students are assigned “conversational partners” to further assist their studies.
The program is considered so novel and innovative that it has been nominated by university administrators at Hirosaki to the Japanese Ministry of Education in a competition involving Japanese National Universities. In spite of obstacles created by recently changing Immigration Naturalization Services regulations, which put pressure on Hirosaki University to shift the program to Otago University in New Zealand, Hirosaki stuck with the UMaine program, according to Mares, who also is a lecturer in English as a Second Language.
“It’s been a growing program,” Mares says.
In addition to learning English, the students also learn about American culture through living with host American families.
“They get a lot more in terms of language on one hand and they get a lot in terms of cultural influence, a real massive experience,” Mares says. “We get a lot of mail back from Japan, saying the experience has really changed their lives in a good way.”
Mares says that with the program’s growth has come increased interest from faculty, staff and families in the communities who would like to host a Japanese student.
“Because they are coming to Maine, we give them information about Maine and this area,” he says. The visitors will learn, for instance, about basket-making from the Penobscot Nation, New England story telling and even about native birds and owls.
“We’re trying to give them a true and rich experience,” Mares says, adding that sponsors will take the students for a visit to Quebec.
The program is separate from the university’s International Student Exchange program, but the English language immersion course fuels the exchange program, Mares says, and also assists in achieving the university’s goal of promoting increased cultural diversity and understanding on campus and in the community.
As part of the program, UMaine students may choose to study in Japan, and, in fact, two UMaine students have already studied Japanese language and culture at Hirosaki University. Hirosaki University is looking actively for UMaine students to continue that tradition, according to Mares. The program includes provisions for tuition waivers and scholarships, in some cases.
UMaine has relationships and exchanges with universities all over the world, Mares says, and administrators will explore opening the door to many of those other countries and cultures.
“I think we’d be looking at other universities in Japan and other East Asian cultures,” he says. “We see it as an opportunity to expand on the international front and expand in that sense of providing an international mission and provide an opportunity for UMaine students to study in other countries.”
Mares can be reached at 581-3895 for more information. The Japanese students are scheduled to return to Japan on March 12.