On his first visit to the United States, Hinata Umehara wanted to understand why Nebraska fans cared so much about the Huskers.
Already an NFL fan, he looked forward to attending a game. Once there, the crowd and its familiar chant became part of what he remembered.
“I remember the crowd, and the chant; go big red,” Umehara said.
Umehara was one of 14 students from Kobe University in Japan participating in the American Campus Experience Program hosted by the Programs in English as a Second Language team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The group’s Sept. 11-26 visit combined classes in agriculture, business, language and culture with opportunities to experience campus life alongside UNL students.
For Umehara, who studies agriculture with a focus on agricultural economics, learning about Nebraska also meant eating at restaurants, visiting a fraternity and spending time with the volunteers who helped him explore Lincoln.
Dr. Crystal Bock Thiessen, a lecturer in UNL’s Programs in English as a Second Language, said those everyday interactions are an important part of the program.
“I really want them to leave with a broader understanding of what culture, community and connection are,” Bock Thiessen said.
UNL student volunteers join the visiting students in language and culture classes and accompany them on field trips. Bock Thiessen said many volunteers have visited Japan or are studying Japanese, giving the students something to talk about as they get to know one another.
Umehara said volunteers took him to restaurants and shops around Lincoln. One invited him to a fraternity building, where they played a game together.
“I talk to many volunteers, and they are very friendly, and take everywhere in the Lincoln [sic],” Umehara said.
He also noticed how living on campus could help students form relationships. Residence halls and fraternity and sorority life offered a different view of college from what he knew in Japan.
For Mikako Sugiyama, the visit offered a chance to explore questions connected to her studies in agricultural engineering.
Sugiyama wanted to compare agricultural machinery in the United States and Japan. She explained that the smaller farms she knew in Japan needed smaller equipment, and she was curious about the size and design of American machinery.
She also wanted to understand the people using it.
“I want to see in my eyes and listen to the farmers thinking,” Sugiyama said.
Yasuhito Shirai, dean of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Agricultural Science, hoped the experience would help students consider what they wanted to do with their education.
Some students had not yet chosen a major, he said. He wanted them to develop an interest in science and think about how their fields could help address problems such as climate change.
“I think this is a good opportunity for them to see and to have an interest in the science itself,” Shirai said.
Outside the classroom, Sugiyama found opportunities to practice English while learning about daily life. At the farmers market, she could look at what people were selling and talk with them.
She felt nervous about visiting the United States because of events she had seen on the news, but the kindness of the people she met helped her feel more comfortable, she said.
There were smaller discoveries, too. Sugiyama enjoyed seeing squirrels around campus and having a variety of foods to choose from in the dining hall.
Bock Thiessen understands how much attention those everyday experiences can require in another language. She taught English in Japan for three years and remembers how tiring it could be to complete tasks that once felt simple.
That experience informs how she prepares students for Nebraska. Explaining a tailgate, for example, means helping students understand both the word and why people gather before a game.
She also gives students room to talk about what feels unfamiliar or difficult. Her goal is to support them while allowing them to work through challenges themselves.
Over the years, Bock Thiessen said she has watched students become less concerned about grammatical mistakes as they find reasons to use English with the people around them.
“You see them transform. You see them going from shy and overly concerned about their grammar, to not caring at all about mistakes by the second week and just caring about getting their message across and being understood, which is what language and communication's all about,” she said.
Bock Thiessen said this was the fifth year that Kobe University and UNL have collaborated on this program together. Some former participants have returned to UNL for graduate study or research, and some UNL volunteers have traveled to Japan to visit friends they met through the program or to attend exchange programs themselves.
For Sugiyama, her impression of Nebraska came from the people she met and the things she noticed each day.
“I love Nebraska because the people's kindness, and a lot of nature, lovely nature, like squirrels, and trees, and the food was so very nice,” she said.
