Journal for ykono

TIUA students arrived!!

2008-02-25T09:04:29Z

You can find many Japanese students on campus at Willamette University.
Maybe you surprise seeing them without knowing Willamette University has a long academic relationship with
Tokyo International University (TIU) in Japan. Every year approximately 90 Japanese students visit the United States to study English as well as diverse culture in this country. Building next to our campus is Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), where these Japanese students spend substantial amount of time to polish their English skills. Some TIUA students with proficient English skills are allowed to take some courses at Willamette University, which positively affects the academic environment in terms of cultural diversity.
This year we have more than 110 TIUA students, which is one of the largest populations our university ever had.
They will expose themselves into the college life in the U.S., which is completely different to its counterpart in Japan. TIUA students have many opportunities to join Willamette activities, such as Take a Break: Alternative Spring Break Program (TaB). I got three TIUA students in our TaB group. They will do some research about our group's objective; food sustainability, and will join entire trip happening in March. As the leader of the group, I hope they will have great experiences throughout the trip. And wish all TIUA students will spend fabulous time on campus.

Yuta

Spring Semester

2008-02-11T23:21:42Z

Hi all,
It’s been a while since I last write the blog.
Spring Semester is going good. This semester I take 4 courses, which are two sociologies; one mathematics; one biology and one Theatre. All of them are pretty interesting.
Currently I am writing two big papers in sociologies courses. One is the comparison of masculinities between students at Tokyo International University of America (TIUA) and Willamette University. The other is the meaning of
a secured community for migrant workers from Latin America.
I need to extensive research for these projects. It is labor intensive but I love this work.

Have a great day
Yuta

Thanksgiving Vacation

2007-11-21T07:56:09Z

Hi all,
Are you ready for Thanksgiving vacation? It's really good to have the holidays at this point in the semester.
Some students, including me, get tired of daily lives after they work so hard for their academics.
After they have relaxing moments, most of them can start working hard again, because there are only two weeks to study after the vacations.
I will visit a professor's house on Thursday to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal.
This is my second time to have the meal. Last year I enjoyed it so much, which makes me excited to have it again.
I wish I could go back to Japan and see my families, friends, and above all, my girl friend. But I think the vacation is too short visiting my homeland.
Rather, I'd like to spend more restful time in Oregon.
One of my hobbies is reading.
I'm so in to Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novel writer, that I cannot stop myself from reading when I open his book.
There are some English translations of his works. If you are a big fun of novel, his books are something you should read.
My girlfriend sent me two books of him last week. My plan was to read them during the Thanksgiving.
But I couldn't resist myself from reading them as soon as I received the books.
So I should find something else to read.
Do you have any recommendations?

Have a great Thanksgiving
Yuta

Mid-semester break

2007-10-22T18:24:56Z

Hi all, how are you doing?
After enjoying mid-semester break I have realized again this semester goes so quick. I can hardly believe half of the semester has already passed. Perhaps it is good to be busy since I don't have enough time to think about complex things. I had a meeting of TaB (Take a Break: Willamette alternative spring break program) last night. TaB is a great opportunity for Willamette students who want to learn actual society. During vacation students live with a group, work with local communities and learn about the marginalized society. While we learn many things on campus, some knowledge and experience can only be gained from off campus, actual world. I will lead a TaB group as a facilitator during next spring vacation. A leadership training program took place at Willamette last weekend. Students from many universities in Oregon have gathered to learn some important skills to be a reliable facilitator. Training lasted all day, from 8:30am-5:00pm. Although I was exhausted after I finished 2-day training, I have learned many important skills. It was nice to meet students from other universities too. From next week facilitators will check essays of applicants for next trip. I'm so exited to see who are interested in our trip.

Have a good day
Yuta

p.s. If you are interested in TaB, visit our web site and get more information.
http://www.willamette.edu/dept/csl/tab/

First blog

2007-10-07T09:02:48Z

Hello people,
My name is Yuta Kono. I'm an international student from Japan. This is my senior year, which means sooo busy. But I'm happy to have an opportunity to post my daily life here. OK, let me talk about myself a little bit.
I'm 21 years old and love traveling, reading, and playing sports. I transferred to Willamette when I was junior, so this is my second year to be in the U.S, which is pretty cool. I live in Haseldorf, which is an apartment of the university designated for seniors. My room is single, its nice and comfortable. My university in Japan, Tokyo International University (TIU), has a long academic relationship between Willamette. Each year students who passed studying abroad examinations are given scholarship to study in Willamette, try to get degree if possible. 4 people at a most per year can win the scholarship, so its pretty intense competition. One of my dream was studying abroad because I love exposing myself to an exotic culture (This is part of the reason I study Sociology in Willamette). So I'm so happy to be here and studying although sometimes it is not easy to catch up other American students in the class. It's a lot of fun to have a friend in another country. Especially, Willamette has a really good academic exchange program with other universities in the world. So if you are interested in experiencing different cultures, Willamette is the one that can satisfy your interest. Now I have a friend in France, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, China, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador,,,,,I may stop here because it just going on and on. But what I want to say is you have a bunch of opportunities to know cool people from all over the world on campus.
OK, I stop here for today. It’s time to go to bed.

Thanks for reading this and hope you have a good day.
Yuta