Connection: Japanese In Spokane

At any point in the academic year, more than 100 Japanese college students are studying at various schools in Spokane.

Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, which graduated 154 students this month, is the most noticeable, as an American outpost of a women’s college in Nishinomiya. Some 4,500 students have come through the north Spokane facility in its 10-year history.

But American public and private colleges in Spokane also have long-term relationships with Japanese schools.

The students come to learn spoken English, said Shoji Sato, senior consul for the Japanese consulate in Seattle, who was in Spokane for the Mukogawa ceremony.

In Japan, they learn to read and write English, Sato said. But there are famous stories of Japanese instructors who can read and write about Shakespeare, but can’t converse well in English.

To learn the conversational English that will help them in international careers, they come to the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The United States is a favorite with students who want to travel to places they’ve seen in movies and television programs, one of America’s biggest exports.

Gonzaga University has longstanding exchange programs with three Japanese schools, and in the past year had 51 full-time students from Japan. Eastern Washington University has a 10-year relationship with Asia University, which sends students to all three regional universities in Washington. Last fall and winter, Eastern had 65 students who were studying business and law; this spring and summer, there are 100 students studying economics and international relations.

Whitworth College has exchange agreements with five Japanese colleges, said Pam Oswald of the school’s International Student Affairs Office. The three most active programs link Whitworth with Seiwa College in Nishinomiya, Kinjo University in Nagoya and Hokoriku Junior College in Kanazawa.

Last fall, Whitworth had 21 Japanese students; this summer, 90 will attend a program that Oswald likened to “an English summer camp.” They have language classes in the morning and field trips in the afternoon.

Students like Ayako Sato, who received her bachelor’s degree from Whitworth this month, learn to adjust to a different classroom environment. Japanese professors lecture and expect students to take notes, said Sato, who came to Whitworth from Hokoriku. U.S. professors expect students to participate - and even disagree.

Students must also deal with huge cultural differences, such as a higher level of violence in America, and assure their families back home they are safe.

When their families see something about Spokane in the news it is often a report about crime, such as the current serial killer case, or natural disasters. Several Whitworth exchange students said they had to explain that they were far away from the World Trade Organization riots last December in Seattle.