公開日 2021年12月06日
On November 16, 2021, the International Center at Shimane University held its 5th USA Online Cafe for this academic year. There were ten participants from the University of Arkansas, a partner institution of the university, and nine Shimane University students. This cafe's theme was Japanese dialects.
Shimane University students used examples of dialects from their hometowns and introduced these to the University of Arkansas participants. Many examples were given such as, Izumo dialect, Tosa dialect, and ways of speaking in Ehime, Hiroshima and Tokyo. In Izumo dialect, the ending of a word, such as “da kara” (because) becomes “da ken,” and the students found this example to be very interesting. One student from the University of Arkansas had visited Osaka before and heard, “kareusakai,” (to go home) and did not understand it at all. A Shimane University student then explained that the meaning is the same, only the word is different. The Arkansas students asked questions such as, “Can Japanese people from Tokyo understand people from Okinawa?” and “Which area of Japan has the most difficult to understand dialect?”
The topic of accents in the United States was also brought up. Arkansas students explained the difference in ways of speaking and characteristics that differ from state and region. Later on during the free topic session, participants discussed about music and food they like, why they decided to learn Japanese or English, and more.
During the exchange, conversations are divided into English time and Japanese time, but sometimes groups spoke in their non-native language to help with understanding. Additionally, at the end of the event, there were students who exchanged personal contact information. The cafe is a good opportunity to interact with students abroad and make friends even if they cannot travel overseas due to the coronavirus.
The International Center at Shimane University will continue to actively hold these types of exchanges for Shimane University students to have an opportunity to talk with people outside of Japan and to convey the appeal of studying abroad in Japan to overseas students.
