96-year-old tsunami survivor thanks OHIO students and Iwate Perfectural students and faculty for delivering water.
Dr. Chris Thompson, Associate Professor and Chair of Linguistics, is in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Japan at the beginning of October with the annual Chubu Study Abroad group of Ohio University students.
The students are studying Japanese at Chubu University alongside their Iwate Prefectural University partners, who also are delivering water to needy families as part of the OU-IPU Tsunami Volunteer Project.
OHIO students and future OPIE students deliver water to tsunami victims.
This year, the Tsunami Volunteer Project participants are visiting several coastal communities where residents still live in temporary housing almost seven years after the tsunami on March 11, 2011. Eight OHIO students and several Linguistics alumni—including Greg King ’96, ’99M.A. (currently an Associate Professor at Chubu) and Pat Maher ’07, ’11M.A. (currently an instructor in the International Relations Program at IPU)—are collaborating with 15 IPU students and five other faculty.
In February of 2018, eight of the IPU students will be come to OHIO to participate in the second annual IPU-OPIE Short-Term English Program.
This project continues to offer opportunities for both American and Japanese relief workers to continue their efforts in cultural-linguistic exchange and local stewardship.
Trancy Corp. of Japan hosts meeting to discuss summer business internship.
Thompson is also visiting Musashi University and Toyo Gakuen University in Tokyo, both of which have program ties to the Linguistics Department and OHIO, as well as to Mie Prefecture. In Mie Prefecture, Thompson is visiting the Trancy Corp. to thank the company for the third of successful summer business internships that it provided for OHIO students with proficiency in Japanese.
Additionally, Thompson is doing some ethnographic fieldwork in the mountain village of Asuke to continue a project he had to pause due to the 2009 Tsunami. He’s joining their Fall Festival during the weekend of Oct. 8 and then travels to Chubu University, a private university located in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture. OHIO and Chubu have been institutional sisters since 1973. It is because of the close relationship of these institutions that OHIO students, staff, and faculty—not to mention the Athens community—are able to enjoy the Sakura (cherry blossom) trees along the Hocking River.
Dr. Chris Thompson meets with Iwate Prefectural University (IPU) President Ishido and IPU Special Projects Chief Sekiya to discuss the Tsunami Volunteer Project.
While at Chubu University, Thompson is visiting with Ohio University study abroad students and the Japanese Foreign Language Program students. He is attending to OHIO University and Linguistics Department business while meeting with Chubu leaders including President Osamu Ishihara, who will be traveling to Ohio University for President M. Duane Nellis’ inauguration during the week of Oct. 16, when Chris Thompson will also be back in Athens.
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