Toyohashi  University  of  Technology,  Institute  for  Global  Network  Innovation  in  Technology  Education        News  from  QC  （Vol.3  2014/10/20）  	 	 	 	 	 4nReports	 	 Activity Report vol. 2Junji Sasano, Toyohashi University of TechnologyI’m Junji Sasano of Toyohashi University of Technology (Toyohashi Tech). In the lastvolume I reported about the three-month English training in Toyohashi Tech. Thetraining had finished after the mindset training held on June 20th Friday, following thefinal mock lectures, Showcase Wrap-up. Then the other participants from NationalInstitute of Technology (KOSEN) went back home to wait until their departure to USone week later. Meanwhile, I left for Queens College (QC) alone in advance on June 23rdbecause I had to prepare for a smooth start of KOSEN teachers’ activities.
I took the flights from Centrair Airport to John F. Kennedy Airport via IncheonInternational Airport in Korea. It took two hours from Centrair to Incheon Aireport, fivehours for the transfer there, and fourteen hours to JFK. Therefore, totally it took morethan one day until my arrival at the Summit apartment in QC, and I was entirely
exhausted at that time.
On the next day of my arrival, I met Prof. Steven Schwartz who is in charge of thisprogram, and he explained to me about the schedule, administrative work about VISA,and application for my ID card. The next day, he introduced me to Ms. Donna Gruber,who is an executive director of English Language Institute (ELI). She told me thedetailed schedule of the intensive English training course in the summer semester andthe placement exam for assigning class levels. What I did in the first few days was toreport the new information to my university.
Moreover, another important mission for me as an advance troop was to settle ourliving environment. Each room in the Summit can accommodate four people, and has acommon space, two bathrooms and four personal compartments. Although there arefour electric stoves, an oven, a microwave oven, a sink, a fridge, and a table, no otherelectric appliances and cookware wereequipped. So, I decided to startgatheringthoseitems.

Asaconsequence of walking around QC in
afew

days,Ifoundsomesupermarkets, a wholesale store, andan

electric

shopwithinwalkingdistance. By the way, there are not somany restaurants near QC, and theyprovide somewhat heavy meals, mostoftheparticipantscookforA campus view of QC. Silhouette of theskyscrapers in Manhattan can be seen.

themselves.
5Anyway, in the first week,I felt tense because of thehastydeparture,solitaryactivity, and jet lag.
On June 30th, just oneweek after my arrival, tenKOSEN teachers arrived atQC, accompanied with Prof.
Shibata and Dr. Takagi ofToyohashi Tech. On July 1st,a lunch meeting with theteachers of QC who wereconcerned to this project washeld at a room in the library.

Appearance of QC library andStar-Spangled Banner in the hall.

alargeAfter that, we received explanations about the forthcoming English training at QC.
On July 3rd, we took an ELI placement exam. The exam consisted of listeningcomprehension (50 questions), grammar (50 questions), an essay, and CLOZE. It tookthree hours totally. In the listening comprehension exam, the teacher read aloud thequestions by himself. Although this was quite natural in US, I felt it a bit strangebecause we usually use CDs for listening comprehension exam in Japan. As for theessay, I thought I was able to write relatively logical one because we had been trainedwith the assignments of writing essays every week in Japan. Additionally, mostJapanese people might not familiar with CLOZE. It is a kind of a fill-in-a-blank test.
Such a test commonly seen in Japan seems to be something that we choose suitablewords to the blanks in a couple of sentences from some provided options. However, inthe CLOZE test of ELI, we had to choose the most suitable words to the many blanks intwo-page articles without any options provided. I felt there were many possible choicesfor each blank although, in fact, the words in the blanks should be determined accordingto the relationship with the contexts or verbs. Therefore, I couldn’t feel confident aboutmy answers.
According to the remarks of this placement exam, we were assigned to differentclasses separated into seven levels. The results were posted on the wall of the hallway ofELI on the first day of the intensive English training course starting from the nextweek.
The detailed picture of the English training course is going to be reported next time.

6About living togetherSeiji Fujiwara, National Institute of Technology, Akashi CollegeRyushi Kimura, National Institute of Technology, Kochi CollegeWe,

11dividedteachers,intogroupsareofthree and live together atdormitoryin

QueensCollege.

OurgroupFig.1 Floor plan of ourdormitorymember are Seji (AkashiCollege),Hide(SendaiCollege), and Ryu (KochiCollege).
There are four bed rooms,Fig.1 Floor plan of our dormitoryRef：http://queenscollegehousing.com/floorplans/two common bathroom,one common kitchen, one common living room, and common dining room in one space(show Fig.1).We communicate actively every day to understand well each other becausewe live together for 6 months friendly. Especially, cooking is one of good opportunities tocommunicate with us. I had never cooked by myself when I lived in Kochi. Then, I atedinner alone while working by PC or reading book in my laboratory every night. (By theway, I had never turned on a refrigerator, moreover, I had not opened a boxed gas stoveafter I bought it!)However, in New York, Seji and Hide, whohave a good skill of cooking, teach me how tocook in every dinner time. When we eatdinner together after cooking, we talkenjoyably and sometimes seriously about notonly current situation and issues of ourcolleges, our research topics, NIT’s educationand presence in the future, but also aboutour family or private matters. Our discussionsometimes was so exciting that we lost trackPic.1 Dinner timeof time and spent talking about it for 2 hours or more (show Pic.1). Now, the cooking andeating together in the dinner give me great pleasure. It is a precious time for us thatNIT teachers know well each other through living together in the FD training program.	 

Toyohashi University of TechnologyInstitute for Global Network Innovation in Technology EducationCenter for International Education1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, JapanTel:+81-532-81-51617Mail:unireform@office.tut.ac.jp