12:00PM 8/10 on Channel UX21 NUM's instructor makes debut as an actor

Timothy Finney, a part-time English conversation instructor at my university, recently made his debut as an “actor.” A variety show produced by TV Osaka called “Made in Japan” needed two local foreigners to assist them in a production about the history of a local business, Maruto Hasegawa Kosakujo Inc., sometimes called “Keiba.”

“Keiba” produces professional manicure products such as nail clippers and tools such as wrenches and wire cutters. The TV show wanted to dramatize how the company was able to start producing products which met the strict quality standards of the European market. In order to do this, the producers wanted to hire two local foreigners to play German businessmen and they asked Ken Umeda, who works at China Network, a local company that provides foreign language translation and instruction services, to help them out.

“Because the TV producers had scheduled the film shoot to take place on a Monday afternoon, Ken was having a hard time finding someone who was free,” Tim said, “but, since I had helped them out with some classes and the like in the past, they called me and, as luck would have it, I was free that afternoon.”

Tim helped Ken find a second foreigner, Peter Carter, to participate and, dressed in suits and ties on a hot and humid July 1 afternoon, they met the director and his crew at Keiba’s offices. After introductions, the TV crew passed out a Japanese script that told the story of how, 30 years ago, two German businessmen visiting the company were highly unimpressed with the quality of the company’s goods and even physically manhandled the owner to get him to understand that he needed to greatly improve his products in order to sell them outside Japan. The script then had the businessmen give the owner, who was played by another actor, a measuring tool that would allow him to produce a higher quality product.

“I had two lines that I said in English,” Tim noted. “The first one is where, after inspecting their products for the first time, I inform the owner that the quality is terrible and would never sell well in Germany. The second line is where, after inspecting their improved product line, I tell the owner the quality of his product has been greatly improved and that we will be able to work out a deal. In both cases, my dialogue will be dubbed in Japanese by another actor when it is shown for broadcast.”

This is the second time Mr. Finney will have appeared on a Japanese TV show. The first time was when he appeared on a panel that discussed Japanese fans of American comic book characters for a talk show that was broadcast on one of Nippon Broadcasting Network’s (NHK’S) satellite channels. “Well,” said Tim, “I’ve been living in Japan for 23 years now and this is the kind of thing that can happen to foreigners if they live in this country long enough.”
http://www.tv-osaka.co.jp/ip4/wafu/

NUM's New Computer-Assisted Language Learning Center

Niigata University of Management continues to improve its English education facilities by converting an outdated language laboratory into a state-of-the-art computer-assisted language learning center. We encourage all students who wish to improve their English to use our new facilities to help them meet their goals.

Back in San Francisco

I escorted a small group of students to San Francisco again this year. They are attending Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, south of San Francisco, which has an affiliated language school within the campus that offered them a two-week special language course. I am responsible for taking care of them during the program.

The students enrolled are from all over the world – Brazil, Colombia, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Taiwan, China, Russia, Vietnam, etc.

The language school, TALK at NDNU, is a thriving community on the NDNU campus. They have small class sizes and students can therefore work very closely with their teachers. Teachers and staff enjoy spending time with students, taking them on activities, showing them the area, and making sure they get the most out of their experience with them. On Friday after class they are taking all of us to Pescadero, a small beach town. We are looking forward to the trip.

According to the instructors, my students’ English has indeed improved and their vocabulary has improved as well. Thank heavens.

Gyosei Koko puts some muscle into its English education program

In the vicinity of my college, there are its affiliated schools, Niigata Chuo Junior College and Kamo Gyosei High School. Gyosei Koko is unique and well known in that it is the single high school in Niigata Prefecture offering a nursing course.

Recently, the school won a grant under the auspices of the Niigata Prefectural Government. The grant, which runs for a certain period of years, is offered to private senior high schools that have plans to foster international human resources and to improve their English education. Programs offered under the grant include special Saturday English classes, access to on-line English education, a school excursion to Singapore and special tutoring to help students pass difficult English proficiency examinations and college entrance examinations.

Another of its programs was a three-day intensive English seminar that was held in early March at Niigata University of Management. I was involved in the seminar, helping design the program. I also collaborated with the high school teachers in charge.

 

During the course of the seminar, about thirty-five students learned oral English under six native-language instructors of English. The purpose of this program was to “give the students opportunities to express themselves in English and have cross-cultural experiences. It went well, in the end, but it was not without some bumps.

There was a good deal of confusion at first as to what the school was attempting to accomplish. The vague quality of the directions only added to this. To be fair, the school had never attempted such an undertaking in the past.

I was glad to see that Gyosei Koko is trying to strengthen its English programs through this grant, but there is obviously some room for improvement. In the near future, I hope to give the teachers an awareness-raising workshop in English that will encourage the teachers to be even more ambitious in order to take full advantage of this opportunity.

Todai Calls for Fall Enrollment

Todai or the University of Tokyo could move the start of its academic year from autumn to help it compete with overseas rivals and help students wanting to study abroad.

A school working group proposed in an interim report that the university stop accepting students in April, the tradition in Japan, and shift to a fall enrollment system, which is common abroad.

The university hopes to reach a formal decision by the end of March after each department has studied the proposal. (The Asahi Shimbun, 1/18/12)

I am for the proposal, but my reasoning is a little different than the ones given in the report above. Recently, my daughter has taken many college entrance exams during January and February as her high school life comes to a close and she prepares for her future. In Japan, it is still common for students to take entrance tests to multiple universities.

As her parent, I have had the responsibility to make sure that she gets to these tests at the appointed place and time. However, here in Niigata Prefecture, in winter, there is much snow, trains are often delayed and the roads and highways can be treacherous with ice, snow and slow-moving traffic.

Also, right now, it is cold and flu season. In Sanjo City, where we reside, four public schools have been closed because of an influenza epidemic. Because of this, my family and I have not dined in public or gone anywhere to relax for fear of my daughter getting infected before one of her tests.

In March, things aren’t much better. Not only is there still the danger of snow and infection, but nationally, because of the preponderance of cedar trees, it is the height of the hay fever season. Recently, the amount of pollen in the air has been increasing and some people have had severe problems dealing with this condition.

I’m not sure what kind of pressure my daughter is feeling, but I have felt under pressure just to make sure she is able to perform her best under the most normal conditions as possible. A lot of these problems would be eliminated if the test dates were moved to summer.

The pictures show my house and garden after a recent deep snowfall.

The pictures show a pine tree that has been professionally trimmed similar to a bansai tree and other trees. To protect them from the wet and heavy snows we get here, we had professional gardeners use ropes and long bamboo poles to give them support. Niigata Prefecture is famously known as “snow country.” 

English Lessons in San Francisco

Niigata University of Management, where I teach English pedagogy, sends students to overseas schools each year. Students here have opportunities to visit campuses in China, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

Last month from September 4th to 17^th, I escorted a small group of students who wanted to study English to San Francisco. They attended Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, south of San Francisco, which has an affiliated language school within the campus that offered them a two-week special language course.

I was responsible for taking care of them during the program, but while I stayed at a local motel in Belmont, the students were staying with host families in San Francisco. It was good for them to be able to meet and learn how American students spend their home and campus lives.

The language school, named TALK, offers English courses to meet the needs of a wide variety of students. My students took a placement examination at the beginning of the course, and were put into suitable small-sized classes.

http://www.talk.edu/intl/

Notre Dame de Namur University was founded in 1851 and is one of the oldest universities in California. (http://www.ndnu.edu/) The campus is located about twenty minutes south of San Francisco. The famous Silicon Valley, home to Google, Yahoo, Intel and Apple, is ten minutes away, and it is also a close neighbor Stanford University. Like San Francisco, Belmont’s weather is gorgeous, always mild, cool and clear, though walking around in the sun can still leave you sweaty.

The language school provided a lot of extra activities, such as sightseeing trips to downtown San Francisco, tickets to a San Francisco Giants’ baseball game and a bicycle outing that took us across the Golden Gate Bridge. As a proponent of international exchange programs, I believe programs like this truly expand a student’s knowledge and provide the kind of perspective and experience needed in today’s global society.

My colleague is appearing in the TV program

On the set of NHK's Netchu Stadium

My colleague, Tim Finney, visited NHK Studios to tape an episode of Netchu Stadium. Tim, an English language instructor at Niigata University of Management, was included on a panel of thirty guests that talked about American comic book heroes who are popular in Japan. During the taping, he was situated right behind the special guest panelists. He said, "We filmed two 45 minute shows. This (picture) shows the set as it was during the first show, which was primarily about the Marvel Comic characters, Spider-Man & Iron Man. See if you can spot me amongst my fellow ‘otaku’ (nerds)!”
The shows run on 6/9 & 6/16 on NHK's BS Premium at 11:30 p.m.
https://www.nhk.or.jp/n-stadium/23thm/thm_s_mail.html

Exchanging Ideas with the UOU

On January 26, 2011, delegates from the University of Ulsan (UOU) in the Republic of Korea visited my university. As members of its Office of International Affairs and Education, they visited Niigata University of Management to meet the president of NUM, the chairperson and vice chairperson of our International Exchange Committee. (I’m the vice chair.) They have been visiting several other sister universities in Japan and our university has hosted their exchange students for many years.

According to its website: http://www.ulsan.ac.kr/eng/index.aspx
Since its establishment, the UOU has contributed to the development of Korea by producing a competitive work force. Now with the support of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the UOU is ready to become a global institution.

The UOU’s accomplishments are well recognized nationally and internationally. (It) was ranked 8th nationally and 272nd worldwide in terms of SCI publications (2007).

Their website also states:
The UOU is currently conducting ‘World-Class Programs’ in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Medicine, (as well as) carrying out various projects which every UOU student benefits from.

During our meeting, we discussed strengthening our relationships and expanding our exchange programs. As recent news articles have noted, many of today’s Japanese students are too inward-oriented and have little desire to study abroad. In order to help reverse this trend, UOU suggested that their established language and culture study courses would be of great benefit to Japanese students looking for an advantage in today’s stagnant economy.

China Beckons Once More

Last week my colleagues and I visited Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology to recruit sophomore students who want to enroll in third-year courses at Niigata University of Management.

According to its website, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, which was founded in 1960, was designated in 1978 as one of the key institutions of higher learning in China. With a scientific research center for post-doctoral students, the university enjoys a complete educational system.　http://www.nuist.edu.cn/newindex/

While there, we met several students fluent in speaking Japanese. Some of them claimed to have learned Japanese from watching popular Japanese animation programs and “trendy” TV dramas.

http://liuxue998.com/11610%20sinsoku%20.html

Wanted: Sister Colleges!

Niigata University of Management is seeking new sister schools, especially in English-speaking countries. Currently, our school has accepted many Asian students from countries such as China, Russia and South Korea. Now the school’s aim is to branch out into other regions.

Our school focuses on business management, and our students mainly study commerce, accounting, bookkeeping and computer science. Recently, we have launched education courses for those who wish to become high school teachers of commerce, social studies, information science and English.

Because of globalization, business students need to be equipped with English skills, the lingua franca of the world. However, recently it has been revealed that fewer Japanese students are studying abroad. Our school wants to do its part to reverse this trend and to also introduce Japan to the next generation of overseas business leaders.

We hope to find a university or college willing to administer crash courses in English as a foreign language for our students. Our university would likewise accept students who wish to study in Japan. Longer exchanges in Japan for the university’s foreign students could also be arranged.

For further information or inquiries, please contact me at the following email address:

ichishima@duck.niigataum.ac.jp

A Trip to China

Niigata University of Management has been strengthening its relationships with universities in other countries. Currently, our university hosts students from Russia, South Korea, China and many others.

So, early this month, I visited Changchun University of Technology in Changchun in the Jilin Provence of China to interview prospective students and to discuss educational matters and socialize with professors (who, by the way, showed me a great time at local restaurants). While the university uses the word “Technology” in its name, it has a comprehensive array of departments including a Japanese language course.

Some students who are interested in learning both Japanese and management come to our university as juniors and, under a program we have developed, are supposed to complete a two-year course of study. If they successfully complete the course, they are awarded with a B.A. in Management Information.

Currently, however, this program is a “one-way” street, much to the dissatisfaction of some of the Chinese professors that I talked to during my stay. They want the opportunity to teach Japanese exchange students and are working to make it possible to accept students from our university sometime in the future.

The picture below shows the welcoming message at the entrance of Changchun University of Technology for the “delegation” from our university.

Interviewed

The woman in this photo is a reporter from Niigata’s largest newspaper. In addition to being a teacher, I am also the chief of the Career Education Center at my university, so journalists often interview me. This reporter was interested in assessing this year’s employment prospects.

I note that, ironically, the reporter who interviewed me, in turn, does not like to be interviewed. She also prefers to remain anonymous, thus, she would not let me photograph her face.

As amusing as I find this, our topic was quite serious. For the last several years, due to “Lehman Shock,” the Japanese economy has been stagnant and job prospects for graduating students have been uncertain. Japanese students, who traditionally find jobs before they graduate, often spend the whole of their senior year searching for employment.

Traditionally, Japanese companies have implemented life-long employment practices with a system of seniority-based wage increases. However, due to the recent bad economy, many companies have been switching to short-term contracts (usually for three or four years) with wage systems based more on employee ability. This has increased the pressure on university seniors in Japan to secure their career status.

University officials are against their graduates becoming “contract employees.” However, this appears to be the new reality Japan is facing.

As a result, one of my new duties at my college is to deliver a lecture to the parents of our students to teach them how to discuss the importance of becoming a full-fledged member of society with their children and to encourage them to cope with social changes in a flexible manner. I also preach the importance of developing stronger work ethics.

The bad economy obscures the future my students face. Japan is changing before my eyes.

Summer Vacation!

My classes are finally over today. I’m in my summer vacation at last. My seven week-summer vacation has begun. But Japanese universities also have a two-month spring break. Next month, I’ll be busy writing a couple of papers and visiting several places for both business and pleasure. In September I’ll go to Guam, the nearest American territory.

I'll soon post a lot of local news!

Niigata University of Management (NUM)

I am an Associate Professor at Niigata University of Management (NUM). It is called “Niigata Keiei Daigaku” in Japanese. It is the only university in Japan to use the word “management” in its official title.
The university was founded in 1994 through financial support from 18 local governments and the Niigata prefectural government. It is affiliated with private schools: Kamo Gyosei Gakuen; Kamo Gyosei High School and Niigata Chuo Junior College. It is a half-private and half-public university. Thus, our mission is to produce capable men and women who can contribute to the development of business circles in neighboring cities and towns as well as the national and international business worlds.
In recent years, students from various countries have begun coming to Japan, thus, our university welcomes students from around the world who wish to face the challenges our school offers. Our university's International Student Center is there to meet the needs of all our students.
International students from China, Republic of Korea, Russia and Taiwan have been increasing in number at our school. We promote academic exchanges and have partner- universities with whom we have contractual agreements in each of these countries. Because of this outreach, NUM has grown to be an international university today.
“Keieidai,” as it is called, has one major department, “The College of Management Information,” which is divided into two divisions, “The Department of Management Information” and the newly opened “Department of Sports Management” and we are constantly striving to improve and expand the curricula. If you have any interest in business management, accounting, computing, English or sports, you should visit our campus.　http://www.niigataum.ac.jp/