Japanese

Toshiko Kishimoto with Samuel Mullen (JAAWSC Award for Excellence in Japanese) at Honors and Awards Day.
	Tanya Murray is a graduating senior, who is majoring in L&IT Japanese. Upon successfully completing an internship in Japan, she was employed by an international industry, a joint venture of German and Japanese companies, in Anderson as a part time employee. After graduating from Clemson, she will be a full-time QC facilitator for the company. Here is her letter to to Toshiko Kishimoto (February 2002): "Based on my upcoming Bachelor of Arts in Language and International Trade, Japanese Track, this January I was hired as CIP Facilitator at AFCO (Automotive Fuel Pump Corp.) in Anderson, SC. AFCO is a joint venture between Japan's Denso and Germany's Bosch Corporations, and, as the name suggests, they manufacture fuel pumps for a third of the cars in the North American region. Their customers include BMW, Toyota, and Ford, to name a few. The CIP (Continuous Improvement Process) Facilitator position involves facilitating work teams throughout the plant. The CIP program gives AFCO's associates opportunities to discover ways to improve the company in the areas of quality, productivity, safety, and cost in order to meet with company goals. Other incentives, besides achievement and recognition, include the opportunity to travel to competitions around North America and Because I did not have training in CIP Facilitation before getting hired, it would have been difficult to acquire this position without my language skills or the valuable networking connections I gained through studying Japanese at Clemson. My manager is Japanese, as are other managers and executives in the plant, so I have many opportunities to use my language skills. I am currently working part time until I finish my degree in May 2002. After graduation, AFCO will decide about my full time employment status."
Clemson University reached exchange agreements with The University of Tokyo, Chukyo University and Nagoya University of Foreign Studies last year. Rooksana Noorai was accepted as a PhD candidate in computer Science at The University of Tokyo, and Jason Hancock became the first exchange student from Clemson to NUFS. He is planning to pursue a career in Asian Studies. Below is his message that appeared in a Japanese Business Newsletter: Click here for full page ...
Top Newsletter Spring 2002 Department of Languages Clemson University Editor