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2017 November
no.

新版

26

The World of
Language and Speechfrom Keio’s Faculty of
Science and Technology
How do we humans understand each other?

YukikoSugiyama
Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Languages
and Liberal Arts

Bulletin of Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology
http://www.st.keio.ac.jp/kyurizukai
English versions are also available:
http://www.st.keio.ac.jp/kyurizukai/english/index.html

The Research

Associate Professor Yukiko Sugiyama is featured in this issue,
whose field of research is phonetics focusing on the mechanism of speech and hearing.

I’d like to unravel the mechanisms of
our speech and hearing
Investigating what characterizes word recognition

We utter words when speaking, but it’s impossible to physically utter the samewords twice even if the words are the same. If so, how do we recognize thewords spoken to us, understand their meaning and communicate with one
another? Or is it possible to distinguish words such as “hashi (bridge)” and“hashi (edge)” that are pronounced likewise but have different meanings inJapanese? Associate Professor Yukiko Sugiyama approaches the process andmechanism of speech production and perception from both aspects: words
uttered by the speaker and their perception on the part of the listener.

What is “phonetics”?
Dr. Sugiyama’s specialty is a field ofstudy known as “phonetics.” Phonetics
is largely classified into three academicareas (Fig. 1): “acoustic phonetics”
examines physical properties of spoken
words; “articulatory phonetics” analyzes
how speech sounds are produced in theoral cavity when humans speak; and“perceptual phonetics” investigates
the process by which humans perceive
speech.
“Phonetics is often regarded as a branchof linguistics. However, in order toexamine speech, we need to identify its
physical characteristics such as duration,
frequency and intensity. Also, articulation
deals with the workings of the oral cavity
and vocal folds while speech perception
concerns the human sensory mechanism.
These factors require knowledge froma wide range of disciplines including
physics, engineering, medicine andcognitive psychology, among others. It isindeed a multidisciplinary field involving
both humanities and sciences,” explains
Dr. Sugiyama.
With phonetics as the base, Dr.
Sugiyama takes a two-way approach inproceeding with her research. One way is
to analyze the physical characteristics ofspeech, and the other is to examine howa person perceives speech. By using thistwo-way approach she’d like to unravel
characteristics of the Japanese language.
Looking for characteristics that
distinguish words“The target I use for this purpose isTokyo Japanese, or so-called the Standard
Japanese. I collect and record samples ofspeech from Tokyo Japanese speakers.
To begin with, I examine the physicalcharacteristics of speech such as thefrequencies and durations of speechsegments. In the case of the TokyoJapanese, for example, the word ‘ame’(rain) is pronounced with a higher pitchfor ‘a’ and a lower pitch for ‘me.’ On theFig.1 Phonetics
Phonetics is largely classified into three areas as shown below:

Articulatoryphonetics

Analyzes how words areproduced in the speech organ.

2

Acoustic
phonetics

Perceptual
phonetics

Physically analyzes speech
as vibrations of air.

Analyzes how speech
is perceived.

other hand, the word ‘ame’ (candy) is
pronounced with a lower pitch for ‘a’ anda higher pitch for ‘me.’ In other words, thepitch levels of high and low determine
the meaning of words.”
But what if it comes to “hashi” (meaning“bridge” and “edge”) and “tori” (meaning“bird” and “last performer”)?
“Both words are pronounced withthe same pitch pattern of low-high,making it difficult to distinguish them.
However, when you say ‘hashi o aruku’(the former meaning ‘walk over a bridge’
and the latter ‘walk along the edge’),the postpositional article ‘o’ that follows‘hashi’ is pronounced with a low pitch forthe former and with a high pitch for thelatter. By putting words of interest in anenvironment where they minimally differ,
we find out the characteristics that people
use to identify words,” she continues.
As a matter of fact, if we analyze thefrequency components in one’s speech
and look at their spectrogram – the socalled “voiceprint” – we see rises andfalls of the fundamental frequency (therate at which the vocal folds vibrate persecond, which we perceive as pitch)which serve to distinguish words (Fig. 2).
Thus, in Japanese, we use pitch accent todistinguish one word from another.
“In terms of distinguishing words by
the movement of fundamental frequency,
Japanese is similar to Mandarin Chinese,
which is classified as a tone language.
Meanwhile, the function of pitch inJapanese is similar to that of stress inEnglish.”Some propose that Japanese pitchaccent is characterized not only by
fundamental frequency but also byintensity and duration of segments as is
typically observed in English and otherstress accent languages.
“I don’t think that fundamental
frequenc y alone is sufficient todistinguish between words in robust
communication. In fact, English stressaccent includes multiple elements suchas intensity, duration and pitch. However,
the meanings of Japanese words change
if segment durations change. Then
what elements can be used as acoustic
correlates of pitch accent in Japanese?

Fig.2 Voice pitches anddifference in meanings

WATA

The dark areas with vertical striations are spectrograms (the so-called voiceprint). The vertical axes indicate
frequencies (Hz). In the spectrograms, the darker an area, the greater the amount of energy. The blue andred lines lying on top of the spectrograms show pitch contours (Hz).

SHI“Watashi wa hana ga suki”

HA

HA

NA

GA

SU

KI

The fundamental frequency (red line) rises at “na” and falls at “ga.”(“I like flowers.”)

WA

TA

SHI

“Watashi wa hana ga suki”(“I like a nose.”)

HA

HA

NA

GA

SU

KI

The fundamental frequency (red line) remains relatively flat
(strictly speaking, slightly rises at “ga”) in the area from “na” to “ga”.

This weighs on my mind,” Dr. Sugiyama
remarks.
To address this problem, Dr. Sugiyama
c on du c t s p e rc e pt i on e x p e r i m e nt s
using edited speech from which thef u n d a m e nt a l f r e q u e n c y h a s b e e nartificially removed. If listeners can
successfully distinguish words such as“hashi” (bridge) and “hashi” (edge), evenwhen there is no fundamental frequency,
it would suggest that acoustic cuesother than the fundamental frequency
are present in the speech, enabling thelisteners to use them to identify the words
they heard.
Dr. Sugiyama says, “The results foundthat the listeners were over 95% correct
in word identification when they heard
natural speech. For the edited speechwhich contained no pitch information,
the accuracy dropped to roughly 65%,
but it was above chancel level. This
leads to a conclusion that Japanesepitch accent is realized by certain otheracoustic characteristics in addition to thefundamental frequency.”
For future research, she would liket o i d e nt i f y e x a c t l y w h at a c ou s t i ccharacteristics listeners use to identify
words when there is no fundamental

frequency.
Would like to contribute tomachine-based speech recognitionand synthesis
In what way do these studies benefit us
socially and academically?
“Academically, I think my researchwould contribute to a better under­
standing of the possible prosodic types
t hat human l angu age c an have by
revealing the acoustic details of Japanesepitch accent.”“I think it would also contribute toimproving speech recognition systems
and speech synthesis by indicating what
acoustic correlates accompany pitch.
In order to raise the accuracy of thesesystems, are there any other acoustic
elements that need to be taken into
consideration? If we can find an answer
to this question, it will also help tosynthesize more human-like speech,”remarks Dr. Sugiyama.
While hearing aids and cochlear
implants are very helpful to those whoneed them, their performance is still far
from that of an actual human ear, causing
difficulty in sensing pitch, having anarrower dynamic range, and introducing

noise into what we actually want to hear.
This is why hearing performance closer
to the human ear is sought after.
“Also, the ability to recognize speech is
known to vary largely from one person
to another and much remains unsolved.
For example, you can hear your namementioned somewhere all of a sudden
even when you are talking to someone
in a noisy environment, a phenomenon
known as the ‘cocktail party effect.’
Individual differences in perception meanthat there is much more to be understood
about the physiological details of pitch
perception. To address these questions,
it is necessar y to collaborate withresearchers from the engineering field,
which will greatly help to formallycharacterize the acoustic details ofspeech.”In order to learn the methods used insignal processing, Dr. Sugiyama has sat inon an applied mathematics class together
with second year students and gets
help from a student whenever she hasquestions from the class. Dr. Sugiyama’s
challenge continues.
 (Reporter & text writer : Madoka Tainaka)

3The Interview

Associate Professor Yukiko Sugiyama

I changed my specialization to phonetics while studying in
the U.S. Encounters with people from diverse fields helped todeepen my academic pursuit.
As a junior high school student, Dr. Sugiyama was first exposed to English and became interested
in differences among languages, which paved the way for going into linguistics. She went on tograduate school in the United States to study semantics, but her interest soon shifted to phonetics.
She was attracted to phonetics because, unlike other areas in linguistics, the target of analysis,
waveforms, has a physical reality, which can be objectively separated from the analyzer. Upon
returning to Japan, she joined her alma mater Keio University, where she currently serves as an
English language teacher while also conducting research in an interdisciplinary environment.
How did you spend your childhood?
Born in Aichi Prefecture, I was raised in a family of four:parents, a younger brother and myself. When I was young, I
was a going-my-way type of precocious girl who would say, “I’mattending kindergarten just to kill time,” which surprised adults
around me (Laughter). I was bad at group activities such ascollective playing/dancing and practicing for an athletic event.
Speaking of my personality, while I am similar to my motherin some aspects, I have much more in common with my father.
With an engineering background, my father worked for anelectrical manufacturer. I guess I can say I overlap with him tosome extent career-wise as well.
Did you have difficulties because you were bad at group
activities?
I attended private school offering combined junior and seniorhigh school education, where I was comfortable thanks to its
liberal school culture.
I became interested in English when I first learned it in juniorhigh school. This is the origin of my interest in language. I mustalso mention the book titled “kotoba to bunka (English title:
Words in Context)” authored by Takao Suzuki, some of which
was cited in a textbook I used in high school. I was inspired bycultural differences found in different languages.
For example, Japanese vocabulary is relatively limited regarding
manners of motion such as “walk” and “run.” By contrast, English
vocabulary is very rich. In addition to “run,” it has words such as“scurry,” “scuttle” and “trot," which express minute differences interms of how these motions are carried out. On the other hand,

4Japanese vocabulary is quite rich in mimetics. The world may
look different due to differences in the ways different languages
express things. This aroused my interest in languages.
I entered Keio University wishing to learn about languages froma scientific point of view. Although Keio had no independent
linguistics department, it offered linguistics studies within general
education. In fact, a variety of linguistics-related classes wereavailable. Another advantage was that I was able to take classes
of professors from the Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies
on the Mita Campus.
Did you take part in any club activities?
I first joined the Keio English Speaking Society club, but I quit
after only one year because it was a little too time-consuming.
Practices and stage-making work for the inter-college English
theatrical performance contest took so much time. Then I joined
an inter-college international exchange organization. At theorganization, we organized camps and invited students fromforeign countries to discuss various international issues. Throughthe organization’s exchange programs, I visited the Philippines
and Norway myself. These activities were valuable opportunities
for me to directly learn about foreign cultures and how people
with different backgrounds communicate with others.
Was it your initial intention to choose a researcher’s career?
Not at all. I had been thinking that I would find employment
at a corporate company upon graduation. But near the end of
the third year, when students in Japan start job hunting, I justdidn’t feel that way. At the same time, I did not know if I could
do anything to contribute to the society as a researcher. WhenI talked to my academic advisor, he said, “At the beginning,
I myself was not confident that I could become a respectable
researcher but dared to advance to graduate school. So, if you areinterested in an academic career, why not pursue it?” With thisadvice, I made a decision to go to graduate school. Although mymother was originally against my going on to graduate school
and going abroad to study, I finally convinced her (or I had hergive up, you might say). In the summer of the year I finishedcollege, I flew to the United States to study at the University at
Buffalo, the State University of New York (SUNY at Buffalo).
There were three reasons for why I went to the U.S. to study
linguistics. First, there were practically no universities in Japan
where I could learn linguistics systematically. Second, when I
was taking linguistics classes at Keio, many of the professors
who taught me had their Ph.D. from graduate school in the U.S..
Third, the linguist I wanted to work with at the time was at SUNYSpeech is something very familiar in our daily
lives, yet its research requires a lot of knowledge
from various disciplinary fields. Elaborate
elements of human cognitive functions arecapsulated in what we speak or hear.

Yukiko Sugiyama
is a linguist who specializes in phonetics. Mainly using Japanese as the target
language, she studies speech communication by analyzing speech data andconducting perception experiments. She was born in Aichi Prefecture andcompleted her bachelor’s degree in English and American literature at Keio
University.

She completed her master’s course in linguistics at University at

Buffalo, the State University of New York, and obtained her Ph.D. in linguistics in2008 from the same institution. In 2009, she joined Keio University as an assistantprofessor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Liberal Arts, the Facultyof Science and Technology. She is also a member of the Institute of Cultural and
Linguistic Studies at Keio University. In 2016, Dr. Sugiyama was promoted to hercurrent position as an associate professor. In 2017, she was honored with the Best
Lecturer’s Award.

at Buffalo.
In the beginning, I was interested in semantics. However, myinterest gradually shifted to phonetics, my current research
theme. With semantics, I often found it difficult to analyze thedata objectively because my judgement intervened in the analysis.
By contrast, approaches used in phonetics were clear-cut because
no matter how subjective you might become (you should try not
to though), the object that you deal with has a physical reality.
The object of analysis is clearly separated from the analyzer.
Studying in the United States brought with it a number ofvaluable encounters. There was an overseas student who camefrom Togo on a scholarship from her government. When I
saw her very humble lifestyle, I could really feel my privileged
environment. On another occasion, a student from Saudi Arabia
told me about the strict control of freedom of speech in his
country. Through these experiences, I literally felt the diversity ofcountries and their cultures.
My research life in Buffalo lasted as long as nine years partly
because I shifted my specialization to phonetics along the way. I
returned to Japan in 2008.
After serving as a part-time lecturer for Waseda University,
I joined Keio University in 2009
My affiliation at the Faculty of Science and Technology has
been an advantage in terms of my research as well. Last year, I sat
in on an applied mathematics class to learn the basics of signal
processing, such as the Fourier transform, and asked one of thestudents who took my class before to help me keep up with theclass. In this faculty, students and the faculty members work
closely and they take good care of their students.
My return to Keio has also provided me with delightful
opportunities to work together with Prof. Masumi Kindaichi(now an Emeritus Professor), who was a lecturer for an NHK
Russian language program on the radio, which I listen to as anundergraduate, and Prof. Kyoko Ohara, who I asked for advice
before going to the United States to study.
For the past several years, I have been helping out with theworkshop called “My Voice” which Prof. Shigeto Kawahara at
the Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies organizes. This
workshop introduces how to use “My Voice,” software which canbe downloaded free on the Internet. With this software, you cancommunicate with your family using your own voice even if you
have lost your voice or cannot speak due to illness. You will needto record your voice (vowels and consonants) beforehand though.
In your daily life, you may seldom become conscious of yourown voice, but it is a very important part of your identity.
Through this workshop I’ve come to think so more strongly than
before. I’d like more people to know “My Voice” and make gooduse of it.
How do you spend your days off?
I refresh myself mostly by trail running and climbing
mountains. In short, trail running is running in mountainous
areas. My favorite places not far from where I live are the Takao
and Tanzawa mountains. I plan several routes beforehand using amap, and leave home early in the morning to go trail running. It's
really refreshing to run through scenic areas in a superb naturalenvironment.
◎ Some words from students . . . ◎● Interest in “voice” led me to take Dr. Sugiyama’s class. She isgentle but passionate when teaching us. One of the examplesof her unique teaching style is that she sometimes lets students
play the role of teacher. Meanwhile, she enjoys the students’class together with other students. Dr. Sugiyama introduced the“My Voice” workshop to me, which I’m helping with editing
the recorded speech. Collaboration with medical doctors andoccupational therapists is expanding my view of the world.
(Reporter & text writer : Madoka Tainaka)

For the full text of this interview
http://www.st.keio.ac.jp/kyurizukai

5hours,hours

Yukiko Sugiyama’s
ON and OFF

Global Leadership Seminar (GLS)
In our Global Leadership Seminar, we go on a field
trip during summer and spring holidays. In spring,
we visit Tamkang University in Taiwan. Groups offive to six students (Taiwanese and Japanese mixed)
make presentations on a given theme. Even after
the session, some students stay in contact and visit
each other.

Both in ON or OFF hours,
I’m always amid cheerful voices.

Mt. Yarigatake“My Voice”
I’m helping with the workshop called “My Voice”
organized by Prof. Shigeto Kawahara of the Instituteof Cultural and Linguistic Studies. “My Voice” is free
software designed to read text using the sampled
voice of your own. This software allows you to use
your own voice to communicate with your family
members even if you have become unable to speak
due to a disease such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS). http://heartyladder.net/xoops/

This photo was taken when I climbed Mt.
Yarigatake during the Golden Week holidays in
May this year. I put on crampons and climbed
up the steep slopes provided with chains andladders, while stabbing an ice ax into thefrozen snow to maintain balance. I found asurprising amount of snow remaining near thesummit when I got there. Shown in photo is
the Yarigatake cottage area as viewed fromnear the summit. Despite my fear of heights, I
found myself on the summit before I knew it.

Craft making
I enjoy making things by hand, items like kanoko
shibori (tie-dyed cloth), chinkin (gold-inlaid
laquerware), a basket, nanoblocks, and etc. But
recently I’ve been avoiding this hobby partly
because I don’t have enough room to put all thesethings and I try not to abuse my eyes as much as I
can.

Buffalo
Taken in Buffalo, this photo shows me posing
together with my advisor Prof. Jim Sawusch
and several students who worked with him
at the time. I was a student in the Linguistics
Department and Prof. Sawusch belonged to thePsychology Department. Although it is unusual
for a professor from a different department tobe a primary advisor for a dissertation, I asked
him to be so because he was a specialist in
speech perception.

Cross-country skiing
In the past three years, I visited
Kijimadaira Village in Nagano Prefecture
to learn cross-country skiing. But in reality,
it’s more like just playing in the snowrather than seriously learning it. As such,
my skill hasn’t improved as expected. I canenjoy the superb silver-white world onfine days.

6

Utsukushigahara Trail
Running Race
This photo was taken in 2015 when I ran
a trail running race in Utsukushigahara
together with my friends. We live in
different places and have different jobs,
but we became acquainted throughrunning. Not only do we enjoy the race
itself, but we also have fun spending time
together.

Wonders of
the human body
Mysteries of Japaneseorganizations
Too famous aphonetics book
● A Course in Phonetics

Not only phoneticians but also
anyone who has studied linguistics
in North America knows this book.
The author is famous for having
supervised pronunciation andphonetic notation for the movie“My Fair Lady” released in 1964.
On the website of this book, you
can listen to speech sounds ofvarious languages of the world(http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/
index.html).

● Kisei no toriko—groupthink ga nihon ohorobosu[Regulatory Capture: Groupthink Destroys
Japan]

Pitch refers to the percept of a fundamental
frequency. Japanese is called a pitch accent
language, in which words are distinguished by theheight of tone in addition to vowels and consonants.
Typical examples are “hashi (chopsticks)” and“hashi (bridge)” in standard Japanese. You may
think that pitch perception is very easy and almost
automatic, but many mysteries still remain about its
mechanism. The human body is full of mysteries.

While living in the United States as a graduate student, I
interacted with a number of students from various countries.
This made me realize that Japan is such a nice country tolive in and that Japanese people are economically privileged.
At the same time, as this book andthe book “Shippai no hoshitsu [TheAlpine climate is a lot of fun!
Essence of the Failure]” point out, I
am often puzzled by why some leaders● Sangaku kisho taizen
in Japan behave in the way they do,[The Complete Book of Alpine Climate]
like not taking responsibility for their
Alpine weather changes quickly. Having good knowledge of weather helps
decisions, their tendency to think only
you avoid accidents in mountains. I started reading this book hoping toof immediate profit without having a
avoid weather-induced accidents, but as I kept reading, I became moregrand design, and their unreasonable
and more interested in weather itself. However, the more I learn, the more
optimism which lacks a sense of crisis
I realize how complicated it is, only to think that it is out of reach for an
management.
amateur like myself.

How are Japanesesounds different
from English ones?
● Stress and Non-Stress Accent● Oto no picchi chikaku[English title: Pitch Percept of Tone]

This is one of the origins of my interest inphonetics. It’s truly trailblazing research,empirically comparing the characteristics ofJapanese pitch accent and those of English
stress accent in terms of acoustics as well as
in terms of functions. It’s a difficult book tounderstand. As a graduate student, I read it
desperately and repeatedly discussed it with
my advisors and colleagues.

How language affects theway you see the world● Kotoba to bunka[English title: Words in Context]
An excerpt of this book appeared in my high school
textbook of modern Japanese. I was fascinatedto learn that language and culture are so closely
related that the way you see the world may bedifferent if the language you speak is different.
Takao Suzuki, the author, was once the head of theInstitute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies on the
Mita Campus, of which I am currently a member. It
was a great honor to have had the opportunity totalk to him in person after I came to Keio.

The definitive version of theJapanese language database!
● Nihongo no goitokusei[English title: Lexical Properties of Japanese]
This is a database rather than a book. The speed andaccuracy with which you recognize a word are subject tofactors such as how familiar you are with the word and thenumber of words that sound similar to that word. Therefore,
these factors need to be controlled when conducting
experiments. This database is very valuable because it
contains detailed vocabulary information of some 100,000
Japanese words.
7

Yukiko Sugiyama
What are your reasons for studying foreign
languages? Because these are requiredclasses? Because foreign language proficiency
is an advantage for finding employment? Or
because we are in an age of globalization?
As an English language teacher, I would
like my students to become competent inEnglish so that they can use it as a convenient
communication tool. More importantly, I
would like them to experience the fun oflearning a language itself.
For example, among the many languagesof the world, there are languages that have
only three vowels. On the other hand, there
is a language that is said to have nearly 40

vowels. English has three cases, namely
the nominative case, the objective case andthe possessive case. The Finnish language
has as many as 15 cases. Speaking of
numbers, English has a distinction between
singular and plural nouns in addition to
the distinction between countable anduncountable nouns. Furthermore, somelanguages make a three-way distinction
between countable nouns: dual numbers in
addition to singular and plural numbers. By
contrast, in Japanese, the distinction between
singular and plural nouns is very vague.
With still another language, the speaker must
indicate the information source (the speakerhimself/herself saw it, or he/she heard it fromanother person, etc.) about the content of theutterance. These are only a few examples of
how languages can differ from one another. I
cannot help being amazed at the diversity oflanguages.
Whether you like it or not, or whether it’sright or wrong, it’s undeniable that English
is now the common language of the world.
Although it may seem strange for me to say
this, given that I am an English language
teacher, I don’t like to see foreign language
learning being narrowed down only to
English.
Not only does each language have its own
grammar and sounds, but it also reflects
the values and culture of the place where
it is spoken. Whether or not you become
proficient in a language, the more you learn
about it, the deeper its world becomes, thus
stimulating and satisfying your intellectual
curiosity.
Everyone, please do not let yourself fall into
utilitarianism. Instead, expose yourself tovarious languages in the world.

Science and Technology Information

A new attempt of our faculty“Faculty briefing sessions” targeting high school student guardiansEver accelerating globalization andadvancement in IT characterize our modern
business scenes. This calls for young people
to have capacities and human qualities, suchas: (1) good at mathematics; (2) advanced
programming skills and IT literacy; (3) goodat negotiations in both Japanese and English;(4) a far-sighted decision-making ability; and(5) a personality loved by everyone. We must
remember that university education that was
successful in the past does not necessarilymean success in the future.
To meet these requirements of the times,
Keio University’s Faculty of Science andTechnology is addressing a variety of new
attempts.
To explain our initiatives in this respect,from this academic year we began offering
briefing/open-campus sessions targeting
guardians of prospective high school
students in addition to open-campus sessions
targeting high school students wishing tojoin our faculty as freshmen. To promote
open-campus sessions not only for KeioHigh School students but for students fromoutside as well, our faculty delivers messages
to guardians through lectures by the Dean
and PR department manager while offering
opportunities for guardians to look aroundthe Yagami Campus where our faculty is
located.
Being a new attempt, it was extremely
difficult for us to estimate the number ofparticipating guardians. But once the session
opened, we found participating guardians
number about a half that of the prospective
students, to our pleasant surprise. Also, manyhusband-and-wife couples participated. The
Q&A session following the briefing was also
very active. We were confident of success ofthe open campus as it made the participants
feel the advanced nature of the Yagami
Campus.
In the days ahead, the Faculty of Scienceand Technology will continue to supply
information through briefing and open-

campus sessions. We will deliver information
about these events on our faculty website
on a regular basis. Please check it if you areinterested.

http://www.st.keio.ac.jp/

新版
New Kyurizukai
No. 26 November 2017
Editing: “New Kyurizukai” Editing Committee
Photographer: Keiichiro Muraguchi
Designers: Hiroaki Yasojima, Yukihiko Ishikawa (GRID)
Cooperation for editing: SciTech Communications, Inc.
Publisher: Tojiro Aoyama

Editor’s postscript

Published by : Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University

A person full of energy in spite of her petite figure – this was the first impression of Dr. Sugiyama.
However, I must say that her overflowing energy was not overpowering at all but was something likebrightly shining sunlight. I saw her as a person capable of attentive consideration for others and theenvironment around her, which is very attractive. She claims trail running to be a mere hobby but it’ssurely beyond the level of a hobby. With a bright smile, she said, “Route planning itself is also fun.” I was(Ayumi Higuchi)
convinced that students love and respect her because of this splendid personality.

3-14-1, Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 223-8522
For inquiries (on “New Kyurizukai” in general) :kyurizukai@info.keio.ac.jp
For inquiries (on industry-academia collaboration) :kll-liaison@adst.keio.ac.jp
Website version: http://www.st.keio.ac.jp/kyurizukai
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/keiokyuri

新版

Why do we study
foreign languages?

26