Japanese Scholarship Winner Returns From America

Our 2008 Japanese Scholarship winner - Kaumasa Honda - has just returned to Japan after his trip to America. He went with a group from his college for a 2-week intensive language workshop in New York, and was able to make inroads here that he will use in his upcoming studies. We were gratified to receive this letter from him recently.

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Dear Hashi,org;

I hope is everything well with you.
I appreciate your support for 2008 Hofstra University Summer ESL Program by Tokyo Future University. It was my first trip abroad and I was a little nervous when I left Japan. The kind support and help enabled me to complete the two-week stay in America without any problems.
I have gained lots of knowledge and experience, which would have been unobtainable in Japan.
I will certainly apply what I have learned in America when I go to abroad again in the future, as well as put it to good use in my daily life.

I greatly appreciate the invaluable experience.

Sincerely, Kazumasa Honda

拝啓,

皆さまにおかれましては、お変わりなくお過ごしのことと拝察致します。 この度、東京未来大学短期語学留学では、大変お世話になり、誠にありがとうございました。 初めての海外ということもあり、些か緊張して日本を発ったのですが、皆さまの温かい御支援と御協力により、無事に二週間の海外生活を終えることができました。 この留学において日本では学ぶことのできない沢山の知識と経験を得ることができたと思います。この経験を将来海外で生活をする際に活かすのはもちろんのことですが、日本の日々の生活にも活かしていきたいと思います。貴重な経験ができたこと、誠に感謝しております。まずは御礼まで。

敬具

本田和正

Hashi.org Announces American Scholarship Winner!

09/01/08 - Hashi.org is proud to announce the winner of the 2nd annual Travel Scholarship to an American! The number of applications received far exceeded previous application periods, and we received many, fine applications, with essays describing a variety of backgrounds – International Studies, Translation, Music, etc. – and cultural exchange interests – Student exchange, Language studies, Grad studies and research, Volunteer work, etc. But our winner is an American Anthropology Grad Student who once taught English in Japan through the JET program, and now has a Master’s degree in Korean Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures (with a focus on Modern Chinese literature).

Our judges of the applications found this scholarship decision the hardest one yet. With so many worthy applicants, with admirable accomplishments and aspirations, it was extremely difficult to choose just one. But the winner’s application proved to be the finest example of the ideals and goals of hashi.org. While there were many worthy submissions, Hashi.org is proud to award a $1,000 travel scholarship to Bonnie Tilland !

Congratulations!We notified Ms. Tilland earlier this week, and were gratified by her response, part of which follows:

As I wrote when I first inquired about the scholarship, I am actually in Korea now. I was participating in a cultural program near Seoul from late July-mid August, and the costs of the program were covered by the program's institution. However, I am now in Jeonju, Korea doing pilot research for my dissertation and will be here a little over two more weeks (returning to the U.S. on Sept. 15th). I signed up on Homestay Korea, a link I found on your website, and the homestay is going great! I paid about $650 to the family for the month (includes most meals), and then also need to cover other living expenses and expenses associated with fieldwork (mostly transportation costs). So the $1000 will go a long way in helping with my project!

And of her research plans:

This summer I have spent two months in Korea to begin preliminary research that will lay the groundwork for my PhD dissertation research, which is scheduled to begin in late 2009. In July and August I am participating in a cultural program in a Seoul suburb at the Academy of Korean Studies, which has given me the chance to learn more about Korean traditional arts and also to refresh my spoken Korean. In August and September I will travel to Jeonju, a smaller city in Korea's southwest with a long Confucian history and a reputation for both strong educational facilities and film culture (because of an annual international film festival). During my research this summer I will be conducting interviews with Jeonju residents, observing local television and film fan clubs, and making contacts with local faculty and members of the Jeonju International Film Festival commission.

I am currently working on my Anthropology M.A. thesis on Korean television dramas that combine themes of workplace, family and relationships, and am analyzing conversations on online TV drama fan site message boards. I am interested both in the conversations happening among Koreans about the representations of family, work and love on television, and in conversations between fans around Asia who are hooked on the "Korean Wave" (Hanryu) of cultural products such as film, television and music. In particular, I am exploring connections between discussions of "family values" (as portrayed in television media) and national and regional identity. I first became interested in my research topic through friendships with Japanese classmates in my intensive Korean language program at Sogang University in Seoul in the summers of 2005 and 2007. I found that the themes and images in Korean TV dramas opened up discussions about cultural exchange and pan-Asian values between people from countries with complicated historical tensions.

Once again, congratulations Bonnie Tilland! And our heartfelt thanks and best wishes to all of the applicants for their good work and high aspirations to reach out to other cultures, and be part of this “bridge building” in our world today.

Scholarship Winner Returns from Japan

Jeanne Vosecky White, Ed.D., our 2007 American scholarship winner, has just returned from her trip to Japan. The following is the story of her experience there.

I have returned from my third trip to Japan. This time I had a purpose, and that was to meet with my old friends and ask them questions about their experiences in going abroad in their graduate student years. I was initially concentrating on their experiences with language problems, but the more I spoke with my friends, the more I saw that going abroad had a much more profound affect on their lives and the lives of their families.
The first home I visited was a friend who had asked me to stay with his wife while he went to Europe one summer when we were in grad school in the early 1970’s. His wife and I became good friends, despite the fact that she had very little English proficiency. It helped me use the Japanese I was learning from another friend. When I interviewed them, I found that she had little use for English except for when she met her former American friends or when she was at important parties that are associated with her husband’s business. However, her view of the world changed when she was transported to a Midwestern university and left to find her way around a strange place. She made new friends and learned how to make new recipes. There were many other countries represented at the university. She learned the differences between not only American culture and Japanese culture, but also the differences and similarities of other people groups and the Japanese. She said it made her appreciate her own culture even more. When I asked her if her experience changed the way she did anything in her life, at first she said no, but then she began talking about her son, who was only three when he was in the United States, it became obvious that she was a bit influenced b y the way she raised her son. Her first son did not follow his father in business. He is in the medical field. He speaks better English than his brother, even though he does not remember his stay in the United States. Her second son, who was born after their return, is in business. He does not speak English very well, but he is good at what he does, and seems satisfied with his life.
Her husband was very specific on what he had learned going abroad. He had learned many new ways of doing business, how different people in different cultures do business, and he also appreciated the new ideas that helped him make more independent decisions in his work. He admired American business practices and the freedom business people seemed to have as opposed to Japanese business’s ties to tradition and government. Yet he appreciated the relationships of Japanese business. His experience helped him capitalize on all the business cultures he explored. His business is international and he is always looking for more opportunities in other countries.

After the wonderful hospitality of my friends in Tokyo, I visited another couple in Osaka with whom I had become close in our grad school years. It had been a long time, but they remembered our experiences at the school. The wife had been the one who taught me Japanese before I started taking classes. She was very proficient in English, as was her husband. He had been dissatisfied with company life and decided to accept the challenge of going to school in America. He attended two universities. When he returned to Japan, he went into a different career, but in the same major area. While he was not totally satisfied with his new job, he felt that it was better than the company job he had before. His wife, on the other hand, did not change her job right away. She stayed in the same field, but was able to move up in her career. Since they had no children, she felt free to pursue her career. While they did not change much in their private lives, they did change their perspectives on the rest of the world. They took vacations to various places around the world. They could look at their own country with a critical eye, yet an affectionate one. They saw the strengths and weaknesses of all the places they had been.
I was able to visit with many others who represented families who came to the United States to study or to teach at an American university. One of the families came to the university where my husband and I were attending because the head of the family knew of the outstanding professors in his field that were there. This man had chosen to put his career on hold so he could study with these professors. He made a choice to bring his family to America for this adventure.
Another of our friends came to the university to study education. He and his wife and daughter came with little money and lots of faith. He received his Ph.D. the same time as my husband, so we became very close. They lived on what his wife could bring by looking after other people’s children or what their families could provide. He went back to Japan as a professor at a university and became a pastor at a church and even helped create a very good preschool program that uses the buildings of the church. The fact that they were Christian did not make it any easier to adjust to American life. They were Japanese, and, as was common with most of the other Japanese with whom I spoke, they were ill the first few weeks they were in the United States.
I wish I could tell you all of the stories of my friends in Japan. My first visit in 2004 was hard for me as well. The people I knew in the states were still my friends, but they were in their own country. I made so many mistakes, but they were very careful in helping me to understand how to behave in Japan. I know that sounds a bit odd, but Americans can really make big mistakes in dealing with Japanese people. While they are in America or in another country, the Japanese watch carefully how others behave. Americans, as well as others from English speaking countries, seem to assume their behavior is acceptable. One example I observed was on the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train.

There are some cars that have reserved seating and some cars are for just boarding. Some trains are all reserved. I had a Japan Rail Pass, and that meant that if I went to the ticket office, I could get a reserved seat. There were some Australian young men on the reserved Shinkansen who did not seem to know that if a seat is vacant when they come aboard, it does not mean they can sit anywhere they like. As we made one stop, a woman came to her seat, which was occupied by a young man talking to his friend in the other seat. She hesitated, probably because she did not speak English, and also because she was Japanese, but she brought an officer of the train to her seat to tell the young men to move. The men were not apologetic at all, but they did move. It was embarrassing to me because my face looked like theirs. I felt that their behavior reflected on all English-speaking Caucasians.

The last place I visited was Iwate, where I actually was able to teach a few lessons of English to some 4- and 5-year old children and talk to the parents as well. I was so glad to be able to observe some of what Japanese kindergarten children did during their days in school.

If only we had a way to communicate the different customs before people travel or immigrate (emigrate) to another country. We need to have better ways of communicating with others of a different culture. Even though I had studied Japanese culture, I still made mistakes. I did know about how polite and law-abiding and careful of others the Japanese were. I knew that one kept one’s promise, one was polite to everyone, and one always would pick up something someone dropped and return it to him or her. I saw this many times and was the beneficiary of this last one. Most children in America are not taught anything about other cultures in a way that would really make a difference when they meet someone who is different. It is important to reach people while they are young, so they can learn and understand others. If I had the chance, this is what I would try to introduce to school children. As the world becomes more interconnected, people will need to know the people with whom they do business, call on the telephone, or email. The reason we have trouble in the world is because of lack of communication. If each individual had a knowledge, a real understanding, of others, there would be less violence between countries.

Jeanne Vosecky White, Ed.D.

Hashi.org Announces Japanese Scholarship Winner!

07/01/08 - Hashi.org is proud to announce the winner of the 2nd annual Travel Scholarship! We received many, fine applications, with essays describing a variety of backgrounds – International Studies, Medical, etc. – and cultural exchange interests – Student exchange, Language studies, Volunteer work, etc. But our winner is a Japanese Student who wants to earn a degree in America, studying Psychology, in order to help people in other countries. While there were many worthy submissions, Hashi.org is proud to award a $1,000 travel scholarship to Honda Kazumasa! Congratulations!

hashi.org Goes To Japan - May/June 2008

In an effort to promote the hashi.org scholarship program, I'll be in Japan from 5/29 to 6/4/08. The trip will begin in Tokyo, where I'll be for 3 days.

During that time, I'll be meeting with members of the media, with friends, and doing a live show in Asaga ya. Truly, with music as the medium, I've been blessed with many opportunities to "spread the word" and extend the hand of friendship in a way that's fun, authentic, and (happily) well-received.

From Tokyo, I'll go up to Kyoto for a couple of days, and again, do my best to spread the word about hashi.org scholarships, and also enjoy the warm hospitality of friends in my favorite city in the world...

I'm also looking forward to mid-June, when we'll review the applications for the Japanese scholarship, and make the award on July 1st. Last year's winner has made us proud - Yoneda Sachiko - has been doing an intership in Seoul, South Korea as an architect student, and used our scholarship money to study the similarites between Japanese and Korean architecture and to draw parallels with cultural similarities and differences.

Stay tuned as we reach out in our little way, at a time when our world can use all the 'reaching out' it can get...

hashi.orgの旅行奨学金実施のお知らせ

Hashi.orgは、毎年、日本、韓国、アメリカ国籍の方各1名を対象に、旅行奨学金（各1000ドル）を実施しています。日本国籍を所有する方で、韓国またはアメリカ合衆国との文化交流に興味を持つ方が対象です。今年度の後ほどには、韓国国籍とアメリカ国籍の方を対象とした奨学金が発表される予定です。 奨学金受給者は選考によって決められます。奨学金の必要性と使用目的が考慮に入れられます。奨学金は、ホームステイや留学、ボランティアなどの様々な目的に支給されます。 http://www.hashi.org/scholarshipjp.html

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支給対象者は以下の条件を満たしていなければなりません。 日本国籍を所有。 16歳以上。未成年の方は保護者の了解を得てください。 Hashi.orgが推奨する韓国またはアメリカ合衆国の国際プログラムに参加する意思のあること。 異文化に対応、調和するチャレンジ精神があり、またその能力があること。 費用が奨学金支給額を超えた場合、自身でその超えた分の費用を負担すること。 募集用紙の必要事項を全て記入すること。 募集期間：2008年5月１日から2008年６月15日まで。 支給対象者は2008年7月１日に発表。 HP:http://www.hashi.org/indexjp.html

07/01/08 - hashi.org American scholarships are HERE!

hashi.org 2008 Scholarships are here! Each year, hashi.org awards three $1000 scholarships - one to a Japanese, one to a Korean, and one to an American. The application period for Americans starts today - 07/01/08! The schedule is as follows:

July 1st - August 15th - Application period for American scholarship
September 1st - American scholarship winner announced


Travel scholarships are offered on a competitive basis. They are awarded on the basis of need and overall intent for usage as expressed in the application essay. The scholarships could be used for a variety of overseas programs, including but not limited to: home stays, student exchange, volunteering, work, etc.

To be eligible to apply, applicants must:

Be 16 years of age or older.

Be interested in participating in the type of international programs
that hashi.org promotes between South Korea, Japan, and America.

Be able to cope with the challenges of adjusting to different cultures.
Be able to fund the remainder of travel costs not covered by the
scholarship

Complete the application form.

Be able to use the scholarship within one year of receiving it.

Agree to allow hashi.org to use your photograph and selected portions of your bio to encourage others to participate in our scholarship program.

For information and application: http://www.hashi.org/scholarshiphp.html