In the weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, Sato and her students helped raise more than $4,700 d

RIVERSIDE, travel industry changes Calif. (www.ucr.edu) – Building on a long-time friendship between the cities of Riverside and Sendai, Japan, University of California, Riverside lecturer Reiko Sato will lead a group of 11 UCR undergraduate students on a 10-day trip to Tohoku University as part of an exchange program between the two campuses.
Sato, who teaches Japanese language courses in the Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages, said she hopes the students will have the opportunity to teach the Japanese travel industry changes people about America, as well as to learn about Japanese travel industry changes culture and more about the region that was devastated by a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.
"The scholarships make it so the trip is almost free for students," Sato said. "Most of them wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to go to Japan. It will be nice for these students who are interested in the culture travel industry changes and language to gain some first-person knowledge about the country."
"They will be taking a course in cross-cultural communications, as well as some economic, business and marketing courses from the host economics department," she said. "There will also be cultural experiences, including travel industry changes visits to a sumo wrestling stable and to city hall. We will also visit an elementary school in Sendai to teach the students travel industry changes some English and make a presentation about America."
"I hope to gain a better understanding of Japanese culture and to improve my Japanese language skills," she said. "I also hope to remove possible negative stereotypes travel industry changes of Americans and the U.S. and possibly implant a desire for English language study. I believe the best way to gain an understanding of another culture is through language."
Sato said that more than 40 students applied for the one of the 10 spots in the program. She added that one student, who was not initially selected, wanted to go so much that she planned to pay the cost out of her own pocket. travel industry changes Tohoku University administrators provided her with a $1,000 scholarship, cutting her cost in half.
Riverside and Sendai have been sister cities for more than 50 years, and UC Riverside travel industry changes and Tohoku University have had a strong relationship for several years. Sato has used video conferences between her students and students at Tohoku in her classes for the last several years and said that it has created a bond between the American and Japanese students.
In the weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, Sato and her students helped raise more than $4,700 travel industry changes dollars for relief efforts and created a banner of condolence and remembrance for UCR students to sign. Both were delivered to the Sendai mayor by a delegation of Riverside city officials in June.
In August, when Tohoku economics professor Kazuko Suematsu visited Riverside to talk about the aftermath of the disaster and to thank the campus community for its support, the idea of the exchange program was born. After Tohoku officials offered the scholarship, Bronwyn Jenkins-Deas, travel industry changes director of IEP, was able to match the funds through the Seung Family Scholarship Fund, helping to offset the cost of plane tickets during travel industry changes the high travel season. Sato said she hopes that the trip can become an annual event.
Tohoku University was founded travel industry changes in 1907 and has about 18,000 students. In the earthquake, a total of 526 student residencies were completely or partially travel industry changes destroyed and 28 campus buildings were damaged or destroyed. Despite that, classes resumed in May.