International Accents

The UI is one of many schools around the nation experiencing a drop in the number of new foreign students — and the negative effects are taking shape.

Study abroad… have you heard about it? It changes your life. Yeah, I’m sure you have heard that one before. The thing is it's true, travel does something to you.

2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution. That tumultuous century saw Russia reject the Romanov dynasty which had ruled for over three hundred years and embrace a new ideology whose leader, Vladimir Lenin, would become the head of the world’s first communist state. The world watched as the Soviet Union re-created a Russian-dominated empire, lost millions of lives to purges and terror, withstood the onslaught of Nazi Germany, faced off against the West during the Cold War, then dissolved, with Russia re-emerging under Vladimir Putin as a central player in global power politics.

The number of newly arriving international students declined an average 7 percent in fall 2017, with 45 percent of campuses reporting drops in new international enrollment, according to a survey of nearly 500 campuses across the country by the Institute of International Education.

UISG passed legislation allowing a new international constituency senator to be elected in the spring semester because of concerns about representation.

I first met Shibasaki Tomoka, the Akutagawa Prize-winning writer and our Japanese participant in the 2016 International Writing Program, in Tokyo a few months before she arrived. When we were deciding where in the metropolis to meet, I casually mentioned that I am a fan of retro Japanese coffee shops, and Tomoka replied that she is, too. Coffee culture has a long and proud history in Japan, and if you know where to look, you seldom have to go far to find coffee shops that play jazz or classical music, or that prepare rare, ancient beans using cloth filters or bubbling mad-scientist siphons or other systems not yet dreamed of (or perhaps long since forgotten) in Seattle or anywhere else in these United States. Like many scholars of Japanese culture, I pride myself on being a flâneur of Tokyo and urban Japan in general, with a detailed mental map of the landscape of its major cities, and in Tomoka, I found a kindred spirit. I thought I would propose a place, but Tomoka replied to my message with the name of an old coffee shop in Ueno that she likes. On the second floor of a building not far from the station, right there adjacent to the old black market on a street I have walked down maybe fifty times, is an elegant old coffee shop aglow with brass and steam. How could I have missed it?

International Programs invites you to attend "Hawks Like Me," a study abroad information session. This event will take place on Thursday, November 16, 2017, from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in the IMU Minnesota Room #347.

If you have heard Michael Buble’s Home, you will understand what this blog is about. These past couple weeks have been full of ups and downs. I am now just settling into a routine and trying to keep my living space clean. I go to campus every day except for Monday, which is when I do my laundry.

How the Russian Revolution has affected history, politics, and the arts — 100 years later.

This month, I had the honor to attend a reception at the ambassador's residence, organized by the US-China Strong Foundation and Project Pengyou. The event was an opportunity to mingle with fellow students and educators who are living and studying abroad in China. Regarding Sino-Chinese relations, Ambassador Branstad has reiterated his commitment to his friendship with Chinese president Xi Jinping and the well-established connection between Iowa and Hebei.

A new staffing model for the UI’s four cultural and resource centers empowers the staff members to bring passion to their roles and foster a sense of community for students.