Making friends can be difficult for anyone. Particularly, in a place where you don’t speak the native language.
Manatsu Yamamoto experienced that firsthand recently after arriving at the University of Hawaii at Hilo as an exchange student from Japan. The 20-year-old knew just a smattering of English words. And opportunities to converse with native speakers were limited, she said.
“It was very difficult for me,” Yamamoto said. “My English skills are (limited).”
That’s since begun to change. Yamamoto is now part of the Conversation Partner Program, an effort within UH-Hilo’s English Language Institute aimed at helping international students practice conversational English. The program also provides a way for UH-Hilo’s traditional students to learn about new cultures.
This year, there are about 60 participants — half traditional students and half international — who meet weekly to converse casually while taking part in activities of their choosing, said Julie Mowrer, director of the English Language Institute.
UH-Hilo has experienced a gradual decline in its international student population in recent years. Ultimately, Mowrer said she thinks the Conversation Partner program could help reverse that, by ensuring foreign students are successful for however long they stay in Hawaii. About one-third of international students are on exchanges and stay up to two semesters. About two-thirds are full-time, degree-seeking students.
“Once they’re here, we’re making sure they’re having as positive of an experience as possible,” Mowrer said. “Because they do go back home and tell their younger brothers and sisters and friends. A lot of these students who do come know people who’ve been here before, so a positive reputation is really important. It’s not going to draw students directly but it’s ensuring that these students who are with us are having a really good experience both academically and socially.”
The number of international students at UH-Hilo peaked in 2005 at 405, but has since declined. In the fall of 2015 — the latest year data is available — there were 269 international students enrolled, which is about 7 percent of the student population.
Officials say there isn’t one specific reason why numbers have dropped. Some speculate recruitment efforts in recent years seem to have shifted to drawing resident students.
Others say there’s more competition globally for international students — who pay more than in-state students — as higher education institutions have faced budget cuts.
But Mowrer said she would like to see the number of Hilo’s international students increase. Non-resident students contribute more in tuition dollars, she said, and this fall, the non-resident tuition rate was nearly three times the tuition rate of resident students. Foreign students also give local students easy exposure to new cultures, she added.
“It’s really expensive to travel, even to the mainland,” Mowrer said.
“So you understand why people here are unable to travel as much. So I think then, it becomes even more important that we bring students here … it gives students chances to learn from each other and that’s ideal in education — it’s not just the teacher giving the info to the students, it’s also them interacting and sharing with each other.”
UH-Hilo student Joseph Osmolak, 21, has participated in the Conversation Partner Program for several years. He eventually wants to teach English overseas and said conversing with non-native speakers has helped him learn more effective ways to teach English.
“It’s good for me to learn to slow down while speaking to them,” he said. “And they get to start learning English better and get a more natural (hold) of the language rather than the academic language they might learn in class.”
Avion Plummer, a 22-year-old UH-Hilo student, said he’s become close friends with his two conversation partners this semester.
The pals spend several hours each day playing board games, cooking meals together and simply hanging out, he said.
“(This program) breaks the glass,” Plummer said.
“We have our different cultural barriers and it helps cross over that line to that other person’s world. We can converse, communicate with each other and become friends. Basically, we are trying to understand how that person is in their country — because we don’t know, most of the time we see it on TV and assume. But now, we have that opportunity to ask.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com
