By Joey Berlin
berlin@emporiagazette.com
No matter where they went during their recent trip to South Korea, Japan and China, an Emporia State University delegation felt hospitality and comfort.
President Michael Lane and his wife, Associate Professor Peggy Lane, were joined by Assistant Vice President James Harter and Professors Joe and Betsy Yanik for a 20-day trip to 10 schools. Nine of the schools are already partners of ESU; the 10th, Doshisha Women’s University in Kyoto, Japan, will become a partner once it returns a signed partnership agreement.
“It was mostly for me to meet our partners, because we actually have 12 partners in Asia,” Michael Lane said. “We just weren’t able to get to southern China, but we did get to meet with 10 of them.”
Described by Peggy Lane as a “whirlwind journey,” the trip featured an intense schedule of meetings and discussions with faculty and staff at each university, not to mention the challenges of a 14-hour time difference. Sightseeing found its way into the mix, too, such as when the delegation took May 23 to visit the ancient Korean city of An-Dong.
In addition to meeting with faculty from the partner institutions, the delegation met with current ESU students studying in Asia, as well as prospective students.
Michael Lane said the group had discussions with faculty about setting up more study-abroad opportunities for students on each side of the Pacific. He said it’s hard for ESU students to be able to go to China right now because of Emporia State’s limited Mandarin program.
“The English camps that we have in Korea, we actually talked about this year, creating classes for our students that we send over there to be taking, studying Korean language, Korean history and culture while they’re acting as coaches for the Korean students learning English, so that they can also get some academic credit while they’re there,” he said. “So we’re looking at a lot of different ways to get our students to be willing to travel internationally.”
Also discussed were opportunities for faculty to travel and teach, such as at Handong Global University in Korea. The trip to Beijing included stops at two universities, including Beijing Normal University, which asked the ESU delegation to install an intensive English program on their campus. The delegation received the same request from Sunlin College in Pohang, South Korea, the first university the group visited.
The comfort zone the group settled into during the trip was what surprised Harter.
“We were experiencing the differences, but yet, you felt the similarities,” he said.“We were all touched at our trip to the ancient village of Korea, when the president of Sunlin said, ‘Teach me “America the Beautiful.”’ ... And then, we had our chance to say, ‘Teach us how to say this,’ or, ‘Teach us what’s correct in the nonverbal language.’”
Lane said he was surprised by how modern South Korea was, and how clean Beijing was as the city prepared for this year’s Summer Olympics.
“All of the problems, economic and even pollution-wise, in the city (are improved),” he said. “And Japan — it was crowded and busy, just like it’s supposed to be.”
“The hospitality over there was top-notch,” Peggy Lane said. “And I don’t know that it was a surprise, but it sure was nice. It was awesome, actually, the hospitality we received.
“And the food everywhere was exceptional, and I felt bad for the students that come here, because it’s so different, and they get such a variety.”
A trip like this is one ESU’s president sees as a periodic event, one he might make every five years or so. Presidents of a couple of the Asian universities have already visited ESU in the short time Lane has been at the helm, and he expects the president from Handong Global to visit in the next year.
“You gain a bit of a comfort level, when you’re sending faculty and students someplace, you want to see it,” he said. “You want to be comfortable that it’s a good place for your students to be.”
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