Learning English: New partnership brings English as a Second Language program to Clemson,...

... will draw more international students to continue their studies as Tigers.

Instructor, Daniel Stone explains a grammar point to a group of beginner-level students.

Published: December 21, 2009

Clemson University Official Website

When a university has a diverse culture, it opens the door for discussion, collaboration and great ideas. Students’ college experiences — and their lives — are enhanced by a diverse atmosphere.
Clemson University wants nothing less. One of the University’s 10-year goals is to increase its diversity while also strengthening the campus’ sense of community.

To help cultivate this culture and bring more great international students onto campus, Clemson has partnered with ELS Language Centers, an English as a Second Language program with a strong academic focus. By attending this new ELS center, students will come to Clemson to study and learn English, and many of them will finish and move into many of the University’s graduate programs.

Because ELS has global reach, Clemson will be able to expand its recruiting efforts to more students.

“This partnership allows us to get the world’s best students,” said Sean Williams, Graduate School associate dean. The Graduate School was integral in setting up this partnership.

To help pursue the vision to be a top-20 school, the University needed the language program as a resource for its international students, Williams said. More than 25 percent of the Graduate School’s 3,750 students are from another country. But cost and the amount of work it would
take to build a program from the ground up were just too much. Partnering with ELS allows the University not only to retain international students on campus but also to recruit more students from more countries than before.

“Our curriculum is academically focused,” said Tara Kelley, director of the Clemson ELS center. “We really focus on getting students ready to use English in an academic setting. Our goal is to get them ready for college or graduate school and get them to a university.”

Learning English specifically to be used in an academic setting appeals to universities and can be accepted in place of a TOEFL English competency exam, which international students take.
Increasing the diversity of students, and reaching the University’s 10-year goal, will enhance everyone’s knowledge by creating an atmosphere of question and discovery.

“When everybody looks the same, has been brought up the same, has had similar experiences, they are likely to approach problems in the same ways,” Williams said. “When you have students from different educational and cultural backgrounds working together, they look at problems in different ways because they literally see things differently and value things differently. The differences that people see create a climate where individuals begin to question each other and build understandings about the complexity of problems.”

One of the best ways to do this is to bring students in from other countries. Many of these students live on campus while others live with community and University staff members. All have the chance to participate in campus organizations, and many take advantage of the opportunity.

“It’s a tribute to the vision of Clemson University that they are looking for international scholars to enrich their experience here,” said Mark Harris, president and CEO of ELS Language Centers, during the center’s grand opening in November.

Clemson’s ELS center began with 16 students this fall. Next school year there will be 50 to 65 students enrolled. That number could double by 2011, Kelley said.

Many students in Clemson’s ELS center have ties to the Clemson area, which is why they chose to come here. Several students also have conditional admittance into the University’s graduate programs; they will be fully accepted as soon as they can speak English. There are also two visiting scholars studying with ELS while working under professors and researchers on campus, Kelley said.

The ELS program is intensive. Students come in at all levels of English knowledge, Kelley said. Classes run four weeks at a time with 13 sessions a year. On students’ first day, they are tested and placed in the appropriate level. As they pass each level, they move up until they graduate.
Core classes are taken in the mornings, and intensive students take additional skill enhancement classes in the afternoon. For example, an afternoon class might be power reading, listening and note taking, American culture, and idioms or vocabulary.

“I know my students and what they need,” Kelley said. “I choose the enhancement classes by looking at who my students are and what their goals are.”

Having the center on campus allows the teachers more opportunities to get the students out into an environment where they can interact with other people and improve their conversational English, Kelley said. Teachers have taken students to the campus dairy farm, conducted learning activities in downtown Clemson and more.

Experiences like these are priceless for everyone. Being on campus is a great advantage to ELS students and is just part of what this partnership brings to the table.

“We want the world's best students,” Williams said. “In order to attract and retain them, we have to have an environment that supports them. Having a robust English as a Second Language presence is one of the key services for ensuring that international students both feel welcome here and succeed.”

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com
(C) 2009

American Culture Exchange

Essential components needed for exchanging your culture to a group that comes from another culture are confidence, a broad view, enthusiasum and the ability to make light of the situation.

As a group of hard working Americans and even one South African put our best foot forward to explain the meaning of Halloween to a group of Asian, Middle Eastern and European language learners, I wondered if the older students would think that our festivities were lame or that some would not be able to connect. I was pleased as the younger students really enjoyed their first Halloween experience and pleasantly surprised to see older students in costume and even volunteering to be wrapped in toilet paper for the mummy activity.

Looking back at this time last year, when I was at a local municipality where the high school attitude of ignoring somebody because you simply don't like that person was taking place, fast forward to now, and I am pleased at my decision making process that has allowed me to be in the place I need to be despite the distance between where my wife and I life and the opportunity is located. Where there is a will, there's a way.

Today's picture is of me wearing a jinbei (men's summer kimono worn in Japan) and a samurai wig.

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com
(C) 2009

Global + Local = Glocal

A growing dilemma facing international managers is known as "glocalization". As markets globalize, the need for standardization in organization design, systems and procedures increases. Yet, they are under pressure to adapt their organization to local characteristics of the market, the legislation, fiscal regime, socio-political system and cultural system. This balance between consistency/standardization and adaptation/appreciation is essential for corporation success.

Have you ever wondered why a Coca-Cola is packaged in the same red can and tastes the same weather it is bottled in Ohio or Osaka? Or why a McDonald's Big Mac Value Meal is the same regardless where you stand on the globe? It is always on a sesame seed bun, two patties with cheese separated by a thin slice of bread and topped off with shredded lettuce and thousand island dressing and two pickle slices and will never have a tomato, mayo, ketchup and mustard.

What is important to consider is not what the products/services and where they are found physically but what they mean to the people in each culture.

What does an executive recruiter in Tokyo mean to the Japanese culture? It will most likely mean that a foreigner, not Japanese will be successful in this role since the recruiter's relationship to the executive will be a junior in terms of age and on the hierarchy scale. Why? Is it because several corporations in Tokyo are from western countries operating in Tokyo or because it is near impossible for a Japanese person around the age of 30 to gain the trust of a senior Japanese executive to entice them to leave their current position for a more lucrative one. Bear in mind that until the early 1990s (Japan's Bubble Burst Economy) nearly all Japanese salary men had lifelong employment with a single employer. Universally, the same position in the US will require the same tactics of selling the executive to their client's company by any means necessary while at the same time selling their client on the executive. By the time the executive and client meet they spend the first five minutes trying to figure out why they are across the table from one another. In my own experiences, a recruiter and a used car salesman are alike in many ways. Either hot and heavy and borderline liar or won't touch you with a ten foot pole.

In this day and age, it is impossible to find a true non-Japanese company operating in Japan. Since these companies have to be operated by local staff comprised of salary men and office ladies (a very politically incorrect statement that is the norm in Japan) late hours, overtime (sometimes paid) is the status quo as if it were a traditionally Japanese minded company.

Maybe you're thinking, since you're not Japanese that you do can come into work at nine, leave at five, not attend meetings that do not pertain to you and still remain in good standing with your Japanese colleagues? Not in Japan.

On the other hand, you can reside in the US without a passport and visit Japan. Take my experiences with a Japanese multi-corporation in California. In the US, the month of January is a month of recovery in various areas, in particular, finances and festivities. The last week of the year has Christmas followed by New Years a week later. So, when my employer hosted a holiday party in late January, I was a bit puzzled. On Christmas Day, the office was closed only because nobody else would have been open. On Christmas Eve, it was a regular work day, just slow to non-existent. The last three days in December, the office was close followed the first three days of January. While business was usual around this Japanese minded company, the company behaved as if it were in Japan but actually 17 time zones away. I later learned that this company's Eastern US main branch is in constant turnover while the branch in California has low turnover due to many of the employees in California are sponsored by the company and are first generation Japanese expatriates. With the average age of this office in the mid to late 40s (maybe even higher) how long can this corporation go on in the US and remain competitive?

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com
(C) 2009