University Daily Kansan / Monday, December 10, 1990
9
Professor stretches stay in U.S.
One year turns to 20 to study languages of American Indians
By Tatsuya Shimizu
Kansan staff writer
Akira Yamamoto came to the United States to study English. He originally planned to stay one year, but his extension for more than 20 years.
Yamamoto, professor of anthropology and linguistics, taught English in a Japanese high school for three years before he came to the United States.
He decided to extend his stay to study more linguistics after he took an English class at the university.
Yamamoto first studied at California State University in Long Beach, Calif., in Sorine 1966.
"That opened up my eyes to not just English, but more about the relationships between languages, cultures and societies." Yamamoto said.
In his third year at Indiana, he took a linguistics course taught by an American Indian language specialist. The instructor used American Indian languages as examples in his book and Yamantaka was attracted by the languages, in which he found similarities with his native Japanese language.
He transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington and pursued his interest in languages and cultures. He has gone back to go back to Japan to teach English.
"It was a kind of beginning of getting into American Indian languages." Yamamoto said.
Since then, his interest in American Indian languages has kept him in the United States for more than 20 years.
For about 10 years, Yamamoto has
Akira Yamamoto
Indian languages. she said.
Brown has been working with Yamamoto to develop teaching materials of Kickapoo, one of the aboriginal languages common in Oklahoma.
"He is well-accepted among Indian people," she said. "Kickapo Indians just loved him. They jokingly call him 'Jimmy.' He feels like he is a part of their family."
Vamamoto has been active in trying to protect American Indian languages with legislation, she said. He was one of the trustees of the language institute who drafted the resolution that supported the legislation of the Native American Languages Act, which became law Oct. 30.
"It gives us rights for the first time in the history to use our own languages, to exercise rights to preserve them, to protect their use," Brown said.
Yamamoto said he would stay in the United States because of his interest in American Indian lan-
expanded to include Japanese culture in general.
"Until I came to the United States, I didn't pay too much attention to who I was and what Japanese culture might be," Yamamoto said. "When I go to Japan after a while you begin to appreciate what you have, your own heritage."
Stephen Addiss, professor of art history, worked with Yamamoto to prepare exhibitions of Japanese art in 1980 and 1985. Next semester, he and Addiss will prepare for another Japanese art exhibition, "Humor in Japanese Arts," which they plan to display in 1993.
Yamatoa has been observing Japanese economic success from the United States. He is glad about its recent aggressiveness, he said.
"He has a wide knowledge of different cultures around the world," Addiss said of Yamamoto. "He is able to combine the best parts of Japanese culture and the best parts of Western culture together."
"In general, Japanese people still work with concentrating energy toward one goal," he said. "I think they are too aggressive."
Yamamoto becomes uncomfortable when Japanese companies become too aggressive to do their business in Japan, criticizing Japan too much, he said.
"We don't know each other very well." he said.
Yamamato hopes that he can foster mutual understanding between the United States and Japan by teaching them about knows about both countries, he said.
Another thing that keeps Yamamoto in the United States is the atmosphere at U.S. universities, he said. Compared with Japanese universities, there are more interactions between professors and students in the United States, Yamamoto said.
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FALL FINALE
December grads get earlier start on job hunt than most
t the end of finals this semester, most students will be glad to have a break and start anew in January. But for some students, these are the last
finals of their college careers before they start their work careers. They are December graduates.
Each December, approximately 1,200 students at the University of Kansas finish their degrees and head for new horizons. According to University Relations, there were 1,293 December graduates in 1989. Figures are not yet available for 1990, but the number has remained close to 1,200 in the 1980s. In 1988, there were 1,347; in 1987 there were 1,285; and in 1986, there were 1,279. The figures are made up of undergraduates, graduate students and medical students.
Terry Schmidt, Topeka senior, will receive a bachelor's degree in sociology this month. He said he was looking for a photography-related job and has had a couple of interviews, but he has not been hired yet.
"It's kind of scary not knowing," Schmidt said of his future. "I'd be a lot happier if I knew where I was going, but it's
exciting."
He said that graduating meant dealing with his classwork, holding down a part-time job, looking for a job and interviewing.
'It's hectic and exciting. It'd be a lot more fun if I knew what I was going to be doing.'
"It's harder," Schmidt said. "It's just one more thing to do."
by Special Sections staff
Terry Schmidt December graduate
During one of KU's career fairs, Schmidt found out about one of the jobs he interviewed for, and he had a connection at his current job that led to another interview. He said he planned to move back in with his parents in Topeka if he hadn't found a job by the time school was over and would stay there until he found employment. Schmidt had mixed feelingsaboutgraduating.
"It'd be a lot more fun if I knew what I was going to be doing."
"It's hectic and exciting," he said.
The job outlook is not as grim as it may seem for December graduates. Terry Glenn, director of the University Placement Center, 110 Burge Union, said the current job market was fairly strong.
"We have noticed that economic conditions may have affected it a little bit, but for the most part, the market is still pretty good," he said.
Glenn said that it wasn't necessarily easier for December graduates to find a job just because there were fewer graduates entering the market at that time of year.
"There are probably fewer jobs available then, too," he said. "It's relative."
Glenn said that some employers came to him in the fall looking specifically for winter graduates and that they had the same chances of getting hired as May graduates.
The center has most successfully placed graduates with computer science and technical degrees as well as communications majors, he said. In recent semesters, many employers have been interested in hiring graduates for positions in sales and management training.
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KU Recreation Services
10 FALL FINALE December 10, 1990
would like to thank all its participants
who competed this semester in intramural sports. Good Luck on Finals Don't Forget Basketball registration starts Jan.23 and begins Jan.28!