INDIANA UNIVERSITY PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING Administration Building, Suite 136 355 N. Lansing Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-2896 317-274-7711 Fax: 317-274-5457

JAPANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS TO HONE ENGLISH SKILLS DURING THREE-WEEK STAY AT IUPUI

INDIANAPOLIS - Twenty-four students from a historic Japanese private college for women will spend three weeks studying English and American culture at IUPUI.

Japanese students participating in the IUPUI-Tsuda 2001 Program will study oral communication and writing during weekday morning classes on the IUPUI campus. They will spend afternoons visiting places such as the Children's Museum, Conner Prairie, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The visiting students will also attend the Indiana Fever game Sunday, August 12, at Conseco Fieldhouse.

The women, students at Tsuda College in Tokyo, are to arrive in Indianapolis Friday, July 27 and will live with local host families until their August 18 departure.

The IUPUI-Tsuda program is sponsored by the Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication (ICIC), part of the School of Liberal Arts.

The IUPUI-Tsuda program is sponsored by the Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication (ICIC), part of the School of Liberal Arts.

"A central goal of Tsuda College is to empower women economically and socially," said ICIC spokesperson Jody Clapper. "In the Tsuda Program students have a chance to perfect their English while gaining an international awareness. With this background, these young women will have opportunities for better jobs and for influencing society."

ICIC is a research and service organization created to facilitate the expanding global connections of the university campus, Indianapolis and Indiana by developing and extending expertise in intercultural communication and language.

While the Japanese students already study English at their university, their summer stay at IUPUI will provide a unique opportunity to improve their vocabulary and pronunciation while picking up nuances of the language.

"I wanted to learn how to speak like a native American," said Yumi Hando, 18, a Tsuda freshman who attended the IUPUI program last summer. "I didn't know 'neat' means 'nice' or 'great.' I want to learn those kinds of phrases."

This marks the eighth year for the IUPUI-Tsuda summer program.

IUPUI and Tsuda officials are discussing the creation of another program in which a second group of Tsuda students would come to IUPUI for the spring semester and attend a regular IUPUI class while taking an English language skills class from ICIC. The arrangement would give students opportunities to practice English language skills required in majors such as history, linguistics, political science and communications.

"Tsuda likes IUPUI because it values the Midwestern safety and charm found in Indianapolis, and it is pleased with the quality language and cultural training IUPUI provides," Clapper said.

English is one of seven foreign languages taught at Tsuda College founded by Umeko Tsuda, one of the first Japanese women to study abroad. Tsuda lived in Washington, D.C. from age seven to 18 as one of five young women chosen for an overseas study program in 1871.

After a brief stay in her native land, Tsuda, appalled by the society's prejudice against women, returned to America where she studied three years at Bryn Mawr College as a biology major. Upon her second return to Japan she taught in public schools until she established the private university that bears her name.

Tsuda College celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.

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Note to editors/reporters/photographers: Students and their host families will be available for interviews during the program. To arrange an interview, please call Diane Brown at (317) 274-7711.

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