KYUDAI NEWS KYUSHU UNIVERSITY CAMPUS MAGAZINE Spring 2014 No.25

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I’d like to start by asking about your background. My eld is anthropology. I did my graduate training at the University of Michigan, where I also worked in international education administration for many years, helping to develop Michigan’s Asian study abroad options, including an exchange agreement with Kyudai back in 1994. I have long-standing ethnographic interests in Chinese and Japanese cultures, and ethnological interests in semiosis and enculturation. I took up my present post in late 2004.You give lectures for many international students at Kyushu University. May I ask about your job and task?My job involves, besides various managerial and administrative duties, offering courses for several Kyudai academic programs, including Japan in Today’s World (JTW), which I coordinate, ASEAN in Today’s World (AsTW), and the G30 International Undergraduate Program in English. I currently teach Japanese Cultural Patterns, Adjusting to Japan, Enculturation and Education in Japan, Japanese Cultural Evolution, and Intercultural Communication: Working with Our Differences. All are anthropological in approach, and all are intended, along with other program courses, to help students acquire the cross-cultural knowledge and inter-cultural attitudes and skills needed for success in the global workplace. You design, organize and develop the curriculum of the JTW program. What is JTW and how do you feel about it? If I may quote from the promotional brochure: “JTW is a comprehensive, integrated living/learning program in Japanese studies, now in its 20th year of operation. International exchange students take rigorous humanities and social science courses, mostly taught in English, for one or two semesters. Japanese language training is stressed, while laboratory research in the sciences is also possible. Supervised independent study and various co-curricular activities, including eld trips to culturally signicant sites, further enrich the experience. The program arranges local family hosting and extensive University student support for adjustment to life in Fukuoka, conversation practice, and much more, ensuring a distinctive level of meaningful interaction with Japanese people.” JTW aims to develop in its students a range of competencies – global, intercultural, Japan-specic, and personal—and that’s an educational project with which I’m very pleased to be involved. How do you nd your life at Kyushu University and in Japan? Is there anything that excited you? I’ve worked at Kyudai for nearly a decade. It’s been a truly rewarding period of my life – one of sustained, deeply satisfying experience and growth. A job and mission to believe in, excellent friends, stimulating colleagues, enthusiastic students, admirable co-workers, visionary University leadership, a supportive research environment, Kyushu’s natural beauty, the endless delights of Fukuoka, and more – all have contributed to a contentment I did not expect. Could you talk a bit about your future research/educational activities plans and vision? I recently applied for funding to support a project that explores the potential of Japanese children’s literature as a cultural learning resource. Development of an internet-based curriculum is also planned. Kyudai News No.2521Researchers from Throughout the WorldJordan I. Pollack (USA)Professor and Deputy Director, International Student Center; Coordinator, Japan in Today’s World (JTW) Program

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