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Thalia Guardarrama ’23, of Puerto Rican/Cuban descent, is known for greeting ΢��Ȧ staff members in Japanese. As a work-study student in the print shop, her desk was often populated with Japanese anime figures and artwork. The senior wore t-shirts with anime characters and often spoke of wanting to go to Japan.

Upon the urging of ΢��Ȧ staff, she applied for the Shinn Study Abroad Fund to study in Japan. In its 32-year history, the Shinn Fund has awarded more than 100 scholarships to students to take classes and complete internships in 31 different countries. Any undergraduate student in any field is eligible for this funding, regardless of what country they want to go to.

Guardarrama was one of five 2022-2023 Shinn Scholars. “Between the Shinn Scholarship and the Gilman Scholarship, I received about $12,000 to study abroad. My trip was literally free,” she says. “I couldn’t be more grateful.”

For three months, Guardarrama studied Japanese at KCP International Language School in Tokyo.

For seven hours a day, six days a week, she dedicated herself to learning Japanese in a class where everything was spoken in Japanese.

“I have to admit, it was stressful,” she says. “The standards there are very high.”

In fact, KCP is among the most intensive language-acquisition schools. The program requires a basic knowledge of Japanese and strong study skills. Guardarrama was thankful for the extra help in the mornings from English-speaking staff who provided language support.

Not only did her language skills improve, Guardarrama developed her intercultural competence through a second course she took on Japanese culture that was held once a week on Saturday mornings.

“After a lecture on a particular topic, we’d go on a field trip related to what we learned,” she says.
 

They visited the renowned statue of the Great Buddha and took part in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

Another class was dedicated to the history of anime, an art form that originated in Japan. Needless to say, this subject was near and dear to Guardarrama’s heart. 

For their field trip, they visited Akihabara, a major shopping district in Tokyo considered the epicenter of manga (comic books and graphic novels), anime (cartoons), video games, electronics and computer-related products.

Reading manga and watching anime was one of the ways Guardarrama first learned informal Japanese. Manga and anime were also great ways to learn about Japan because these art forms often draw inspiration from Japanese daily life.

“In retrospect,” she says, “there’s only so much research you can do on what life is like in another country and even the language, because it’s so different when you actually go there and experience it. I learned more Japanese and became more fluent in the three months I was there than I did in a year of taking Japanese classes in the U.S.” 

Guardarrama’s goal now is to get herself in a financial position where she can visit Japan every year. She completed her B.A. degree in English at the end of Fall Semester 2023 and is currently writing and developing characters for a gamer creator in Spain.

If you’re interested in learning abroad, you can become one of the many ΢��Ȧ students who have benefited from the wonderful experiences made possible by the Shinn Study Abroad Fund. Visit the Shinn Scholarship Fund website. Also visit the Office of Study Abroad or contact the co-directors Dr. Jennifer Holl (jholl@ric.edu) or Dr. Joanne Schneider (jschneider@ric.edu).