ignite
Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education

Toyohashi University of Technology,
Institute for Global Network Innovation inTechnology Education

News from QC（Vol. 25 2016/12/6）

nReports

What I did and how I felt during my stay in QC
Takeshi Miyashita, Nagaoka University of Technology
1.

Introduction

often felt stressed, especially during daily

Time has passed more quickly than I

conversations, rather than my discipline. Even

expected. Now, it is the end of November, andthough this issue persists, I do feel like I’m able

Thanksgiving is right in front of our eyes. I justto speak English more smoothly than I did inhave one month left in Queens College (QC).

the past.

The amount of autumn leaves on the campus
have gradually decreased. Although I can still
feel warmth from the sun, the temperature in
the early morning or late night is about 5º
degrees Celsius (41º degrees Fahrenheit). I
heard there is time that we have the first snow
in this season, but not yet this year. In
supermarkets, I can see various Christmas

Farewell party in Summer English classgoods. In this report, I’m going to write about
what I did and how I felt during my stay in the3.

QC.

Fall semester
I take classes for a credit and an audit, which

are chosen by program participants as they like.
2.

Summer semester

In addition, there are common classes such as

We took English classes provided by thean English class (three hours on Friday

English Language Institute (ELI) in QC. Onmorning) and a school education class (twoMondays to Thursdays, these classes took fromhours on Friday afternoon). Moreover, it’smorning, 8:30A.M. to 11:30A.M. and afternoon,

possible to take English classes provided by0:30P.M.

ofESL in fall semester at personal expense. I

Speaking/Listening and Writing/Reading. As

decided to take evening Speaking/Listening

my results of a placement test turned out, Iclasses. Each of classes are explained below.

belonged to Class 6A (the second class from the- Class for a credit

to3:30P.M.,

andconsist

highest). All lectures are given in English, so,Iselected

anundergraduateclass

in the beginning of classes, it was hard for me(MATH223) relating to an ordinary differential

to understand what the teachers talked about.

equation (ODE). Focusing on procedure forI’ve never studied English intensively in mysolving the first and second order ODEs arelife, and I could refresh my memory. This

lectured, and this is very good opportunity toexperience was so useful to me that I was able

review my knowledge. A textbook used in theto review fundamentals of English towards theclass is Differential Equations and Theirfuture. Most of my classmates are in their

Applications (ISBN-13: 978-0387978949) by atwenties, and I could also refresh myself as if I

Professor at QC. Personally, I think this book isreturned to school days. However, it was morevery good. For this class, there are 75 minutes

difficult to speak English than I expected, so Iof lecture twice per week.
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- Class for an audit

personal experiences and discuss topics with

My discipline is civil engineering, but there
arenoengineering

departments

ateach other. I could know a concept map and anQC.

exam wrapper through this class, so I want toTherefore, I dared to take a class at CUNY City

use these tools to improve my classes.

College in which I was interested. This class is- Othersa structural analysis in graduate course. CityI didn’t want to reduce the number ofCollege is one of universities in City University

opportunities to touch English, so I took anof New York (CUNY). It’s located in Upper

evening Speaking/Listening class at ESL. This

Manhattan, and where there are engineeringclass is from 6:30P.M. to 8:30P.M. on Tuesday

departments in City College. Before I visited

and Thursday. Classmates in this evening classthere, I sent an e-mail to Prof. Ghosn aboutare older than in summer semester. I’m not surepermission for an audit. In addition, I waswhether this is a reason or not, but many

driven when I saw information in a handout

students

distributed in an orientation meeting for thisatmosphere in the class drastically changes.

program: “Contents of global FD program are

After each of the three presidential debates, weable to be built by ourselves.” Now, I feel this

discussed our opinions. These are good

activity was very good choice for me. I haveexperience and will be good memories.

only one class per a week, but per session, itMoreover, I had opportunities to talk tocontinues from 6:50P.M. to 9:20P.M. without alanguage partners, who are studying Japaneserest.

at QC. Every week we would meet for about

A lectureisexplained

throughachalkboard, and the number of reports I needed

attendtheclass

actively,andone and a half hours, three times in a week.

to write reaches to about twenty. As I felt
similarly at ESL, instructors in the U.S. are4.

Summary

very tough. This class is only for my audit, but

I am the first person from Nagaoka

I have handed in every homework assignment

University of Technology to attend thisand taken every exam. I believe this class will

program. Thus, at first, I was hesitant about

be a lifetime treasure from the educational andparticipating because I could not get the entire

academic point of views.

image of the program. However, it was a right- English classdecision for me. I strongly hope to continue thisOn every Friday morning, an English class,program as one of participants.

which is Academic Language Support Course,
started from the end of September. This is apractical class where we mainly learn how topronounce and review English grammar such as
articles, prepositions and phrasal verbs.
- School education class
On Friday afternoon, we have a class about

Farewell party in Fall English classschool education. On the basis of case studies
in a textbook, which is How Learning Works(ISBN-13:978-0470484104),

weshare2

Some differences between NY and Japan
Masanao Yamada, National Institute of Technology, Kushiro College
In this report, I’d like to introduce someFig.1. The unit price is shown in pounds

differences between NY and Japan. As this is(Price/lb., $6.89) on the receipt. If it weremy first visit to the U.S., I find various things

written in SI units like $1.5/100g, it would beinteresting.

easy to understand for me.

When an American student goes through adoor, he or she usually holds the door open for
the following person. At that time, theyexchange a brief conversation like “Thank you”,“Your welcome.” The Japanese also holds thedoor for the next person but the American
seems to wait a longer time than the Japanese
does when the following person comes a little
bit more late. I think this is one of the goodmanners of the Americans.
Revolving doors are popular in NY. We cansee them in the campus, stations, and otherbuildings. In contrast, we rarely see revolving
doors in Japan. There was an incident that a
six-year old child got caught in a revolving
door and died in Tokyo in 2004. After this,many revolving doors in Japan have been
replaced for automated doors and almost no
new revolving doors have been installed toprevent similar incidents. When I use arevolving door, I always remember the accident
and the stance on safety of the Japanese.

Fig. 1 The price board at the cafeteria on

The American uses US Customary Unitscampus, an example of buffet-style food, andsuch as yard and pound for measurement

its receipt

instead of International System of Units (SI)such as meter and gram. It is hard to convert

The other difference between NY and Japan

from US units to SI or vice versa. For instance,is the way of disposing of garbage. When I was

the price of buffet-style food at the cafeteria onin Toyohashi, Japan, an exchange student fromcampus is shown as $0.43 per ounce on theNY asked me where we can throw out an empty

menu board (Fig.1 top). If I take 0.775 pound

can on the street. After I came to NY, I came toof food － one pound is 16 ounce andunderstand why he asked me where to dispose

approximately equals 454 grams － it costsof garbage. There are many garbage bins in$5.34 as shown in the middle and the bottom ofNY’s public places compared to Japan. Sorting3

out garbage is not practiced in NY. Household
wastes are just put on the roadside without
distinction. I was so surprised when I found a
toilet seat disposed while jogging around in themorning (Fig. 2). In Japan, we should sort out
garbage into several kinds such as combustibles,incombustible, glass bottles, plastic bottles,
large-sized garbage, etc.
The differences between NY and Japan
mentioned here are some that I noticed. I wantFig. 2 Household wastes on the roadside

to come across more in my remaining month
here.

Toyohashi University of Technology
Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education
Center for International Education
1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan
Tel: +81-532-81-5161
Mail: unireform@office.tut.ac.jp

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