BY MASAHIRO SHIBATA
Presentations in Japanese by exchange students from the University of Nebraska at Kearney were held on the 16th of December last year. It was a special opportunity to show the fruits of studying Japanese language for a year. A large number of their teachers and friends who were closely acquainted with them assembled at the meeting room. After making their presentations, a farewell reception was held which was not only an opportunity to say good-bye to the exchange students returning to their countries, but one to promise our friendship in the future.
Sapporo University entered into cooperation with University of Nebraska at Keaney in 1983, and started to send and accept exchange students the following year. It has accepted thirty-one students up to this year, and has sent eighty-six students so far. In 1999, three students from Kearney, Yvette Peterson, Christopher Kort, and Andres Translavina, were registered at our university, and studied Japan's language and culture.
Titles of their presentations which they prepared for the day were ;
"The Culture and Language of Ainu" by Yvette Peterson
"The Comparison of Hokkaido and Nebraska" by Christopher Kort
"Unknown Colombia - My Home" by Andres Translavina
On the day of presentations, all of them showed tense expressions. However, they fascinated the audience without being swallowed by their manuscripts, using special effects with the computer, and projected pictures downloaded from the Internet on the screen. First, Yvette made her presentation on the Culture and Language of Ainu. She did it eagerly, using polite expressions which she had learnt in only a short time, showing, for example, "petsu" meant river in Ainu. Her presentation attracted the audience's attention because it included lots of things in great detail which even the Japanese overlook in everyday life. Christopher, in the Comparison of Hokkaido and Nebraska, took up the difference in the climate and in the farming. He was dismayed when he had to stop for a few minuets because there was something wrong with the computer. But it was profitable for us to understand the climate of the state where our sister university is.
The presentation of Andres was the description of his home, Colombia, in Japanese. I had a good opportunity to help him with the preparation of his presentation because I was well acquainted with him. I was asked to correct his writing in Japanese. He was born in Colombia, but went to university in America. Thus, his mother tongue is Spanish. His fluent English is his second language, and, to my surprise, Japanese is his third language. Therefore, correction of his draft in Japanese was absolutely interesting to me. Regarding Japanese as a foreign language, it seemed to be difficult for him to use particles. His writing developed better on account of my correcting it two or three times, though I was wary lest it become my words. I found it difficult to explain my mother tongue logically as a foreign language when I experienced just the same work as when I asked teachers in English-speaking countries to help me in correcting my articles for the Youth Forum News in English.
In my estimation, emotionally his presentation was most appealing to the audience. His presentation might have fallen into just a description of his home, but he warmed up the place by playing a bullfighter with his own national flag, showing the cheerfulness peculiar to a Latin. There was laughter among the audience, owing to his bashful words, " I think Colombian women are the most beautiful in the world. You want to see them, don't you?" while turning on the tape recorder and projecting beautiful women in Colombia on the screen.
Their presentations were a great success due to a teacher of Japanese, Ms. Emiko Momoi. All of them relaxed smilingly in the farewell reception throughout which Japanese and English flew back and forth, talking with their teachers, friends, and their host from who they received assistance. Everyone who was there seemed loathe to leave, completely losing track of time.