ISALC, Lewis and Clark College

Fumika Yamamoto: An Introduction

Hi! I'm from Tokyo, Japan. My hometown is Hiroshima, but before I came to America, I'd lived in Tokyo by myself. I'm the eldest child in my family, and I have a brother and a sister.

I'm a student of Tokyo Women's Christian University, and I major in culture and communication. Especially, I'm interested in cross-cultural communication( ex. stereotypes) , and gender studies. I like my university very much because it's not a multiversity but a small scale university, so there are not so many students in each class comparing with other big scale universities' classes. Generally, our teachers are very flexible and we take part in classes positively. And also there are various kinds of interesting subjects in my departments, because our department is pretty new and it was made to aim at global education. I think my university and L&C College have quite similar atmosphere because both schools are not so big, and also they focus on international education.

Before I came to America, I finished my junior year and took one year off. I studied in New York for half a year, and then I came to L&C College in this summer. The reason why I chose New York was that I thought New York was one of the most cross-cultual cities and I wanted to live in such a melting pot. It was no doubt that New York had many kinds of people, however, I felt New York was like a puzzle rather than a melting pot. That is, of course, many races live in New York, however, they are not mixed but separated such as any other big city. Furthermore, I wanted to experience completely different environment of America, so I moved from New York to Portland. At first, I thought Portland was not such an exciting city, but now I like Portland very much because there is both the beautiful nature and the neat downtown in Portland.

At first, I planned to stay in America for only one year. However, I feel one year is not enough for me to improve my English, so I want to study one more year at L&C College. I like this school so much because it's comfortable for me to live in this calm atmosphere and everyday I feel students of L&C College are very friendly and kind. Furthermore, there are many interesting subjects, so I'm really looking forward to studying at L&C.

When I return to Japan, I have to write my graduation thesis, and at the same time I have to look for a job. I haven't decided what kind of subject I should focus on in my thesis, but I think my experience at L&C will be a big help for me. Now, it's very difficult for me to tell my dreams for the future because I don't know what kind of company I want to work for, but it's one of my dreams to improve my English, travel and communicate with various kinds of people.

Fumika Yamamoto: The Writer

In Japan, we have a custom to count years by using twelve animals (the same as China), and we have some superstitious stories about each animal. One of these stories is that girls who were born in the year of the horse will be romping girls. In Japan, romping girls has quite a negative meaning because in our traditional culture, one of the most important characteristics of girls is to be quiet. For example, when I argued with my brother, my parents always scolded only me. At that time, I could not understand why they did not scold both of us, but now I know the reason. They wanted me to be more humble. In Japan, if girls always insist on their opinion, parents will worry and think they are not going to be feminine. On the other hand, if boys always insist on their opinion, parents will be pleased and think they are going to be masculine. Of course, it's not true at all, however, generally Japanese society prefers modest women to assertive women. It's very interesting for me to compare this tendency with the tendency of American society which considers the person who cannot say his or her opinion as stupid. I heard that many Japanese parents believe this superstition, and they are afraid of having girls who cannot get married because of their wild character, so in every horse year the birth rate of girls tends to be reduced. I think the traditional image that horses are rowdy cause this story. I asked my American friends about North American's image of horses, and they said that their image was gentle.

I can compare my writing to the Japanese image of horses because sometimes my writing is rough. When I write, I try to write more orderly, but it takes me so long time that sometimes I cannot use enough time to write the last part of the assignment. It's a big problem because the conclusion is one of the most important parts of my whole writing. Especially, when I have to write something in class, it's very hard for me to finish my writing within the limited, short time. I think I need more practice to write fast, so my purpose in this class is to write organized writings quickly. I hope to change my writing process to become more stable and achieve more fluent construction by taking this writing class.

Please EMail me!

Click here to see the writing assignment.

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Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 9/16/99