事務官「この留学生を受け入れるには、問題がたくさんありますね」
私「どんな問題ですか」
事務官「まず彼は11年の教育しか受けてないしケンブリッジ大学の推薦文も不完全ですよ」
Ukeireru
Jimukan: Kono ryuugakusei wo ukeireru ni wa mondai ga tafeusan arimasu ne.
Watashi: Donna mondai desu ka.
Jimufean: Mazu feare wa ll nen no kyooiku shika uketeinai shi, Kenburiji Daigaku no suisenbun mo fukanzen desu yo.
Administrator: There certainly are a lot of problems involved with accepting this foreign student.
Me: What sort of problems?
Administrator: First, he's only had ll years of schooling. And (second), the recommendation from Cambridge University is incomplete.
Ukeru is often followed by another verb to form a compound. This week's ukeireru (ukeru + ireru) is one such example and refers to accepting the responsibility for taking care of someone.
As some readers may already know, the Ministry of Education has mapped out a program calling for 100,000 foreign students to come to Japan by the year 2000. It's called, "The Plan to Receive 100,000 People" ("10 man nin ukeire keikaku"). With the exchange rate unfavorable to foreign currencies, however, life in Japan is very costly for foreign students; competition to become a government-sponsored foreign student (kokuhi ryuugakusei) is thus keen. No one wants to be a student who pays for his or her expenses privately (shihi ryuugakusei).
George, the boy being talked about in this week's conversation, is one such example. Having previously studied Japanese with me, he expressed a desire to continue studying under me at the college level. And though at first I worried about whether Yamaguchi would be the right place for him, he fell in love with the beautiful surroundings after one visit to the school and said that this was definitely where he wanted to study. So far, so good. The next step in becoming a kokuhi ryuugakusei was to fill out all the proper forms and applications. Here again George did an exemplary job. Then his troubles began. As mentioned in this week's conversation, George graduated from Cambridge University after just three years study.
One would expect this fact to be a clear demonstration of his superior intellect, but Japanese administrators seem to be locked into thinking it takes 4 years and never 3 to graduate from university. The administrator also said the recommendation written by one of George's professors was incomplete. The schbol doesn't really expect George to go back to his professor, tell him the school he is applying to feels the recommendation the professor wrote was incomplete, and then ask the professor to write another one? If administrators at Japanese national universities are like this one-"Rare wo ukeireru no wa muzukashii" ("It will be difficult to accept him")-I think the Ministry of Education needs to spend time educating them before they worry about educating anyone else!
Ryuugakusei wo ukeireru koto de Yamaguchi daigaku mo kokusaika suru to omou'n desu ga (I think that accepting foreign students will mean that even Yamaguchi University can be included in the internationalization process); talking with young people from around the world can only serve as a good influence on Japanese students' present way of thinking.
And yet there are still many akishitsu (vacant rooms) in the new Foreign Students' Hall...