East Asian Languages and Cultures

TRIP China 2001 and TRIP Japan 2002
TRIP Japan 2005, TRIP Japan 2006
TRIP China 2004 and TRIP China 2006

EALC's language and cultural TRIPs (Traveling Research and Immersion Program) to China and Japan, funded through a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation, have figured prominently in the college's overseas course enrichment initiative, achieving an innovative curricular model in which the reinforcement of foreign language skills and the deepening of cultural knowledge are jointly upheld and vigorously pursued as the dual goals of the short-term academic journey.

CC students being approached by interested local Chinese people on the Bund, the riverside park in Shanghai

Conducted for a period of 2-3 weeks upon the completion of two semesters of intensive Chinese and Japanese, the first East Asian TRIPs transported students from Connecticut College to China and Japan for linguistic and cultural fieldwork under faculty guidance and supervision.

Engaging in a wide variety of activities and events — visiting cultural sites, exploring historic landscapes, assuming unfamiliar social roles, and performing language tasks — students had the opportunity to observe, reflect, and experience hands-on. They could compare the reality encountered in their itineraries with what had been examined in the classroom.

In the end, they not only witnessed in themselves improved communicative functionality and the development of broadened perspectives to inform their ongoing studies of China and Japan, but also have strengthened and reconfirmed their commitment to the pursuit of an undergraduate degree in East Asian languages and cultures .

One of the many sites in Japan visited by CC students: Tsurugaoka Shrine

Share the joy of seeing earnest young minds face the challenges of exploring foreign lands, to be nurtured by them, and to attain inquisitive and analytical subtleties at a level never before found.