Russian Students of Japanese Visit SFC
11 January 2012On November 15, 2011, SFC hosted 27 students from Russia who were visiting Japan on an exchange operated by the Japan Russia Youth Exchange Center.
The Center carries out this exchange program annually, inviting Russian university students of Japanese language to Japan, in order for them to interact with Japanese students and experience Japanese culture. This year’s group of students visited cultural institutions and historical sites in Tokyo and Kyoto from November 10 to 17, during which time they also came to SFC.
On arriving at SFC, the group was welcomed by and had lunch with students of the Professor Hirataka Laboratory, followed by a tour of the campus amongst the beautiful autumn leaves. Of the buildings viewed, the students seemed particularly impressed with the well-equipped facilities of the Media Center, and a number of them expressed a desire to study at SFC in the future.
After that, the visiting students were split into three smaller groups, to hold discussions with groups of SFC students, whose numbers had by then increased. The Russian students participating in the program came from various parts of Russia, such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok and Yuzhno-sakhalinsk, and had varying abilities in Japanese, so the discussions, which centered on familiar themes including student life, hobbies and popular culture, were sometimes conducted in English as well.
The Russian students next participated in a Japanese Skill class taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Hiroko Terada, Faculty of Policy Management. The theme of this particular class was the accent of nouns. Although the Japanese words for “flower” (花) and “nose” (鼻) are pronounced the same (hana), when followed by the article【が】(ga) they can be distinguished due to the differing accent of【が】(ga). On making this discovery, the students seemed enlightened, and joined in pronunciation practice enthusiastically. While the regular international students from Korea and China took a lead in the class, the positive attitude of the Russian students left a strong impression.
(This information is released by the International Affairs Office)