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Most LA City College students transfer to Cal State
Northridge, Cal State LA, or UCLA. It’s not often that an LACC student (who
happens to be born and raised in LA) transfers to a school in Japan to
complete his bachelor’s degree. But such is the case of Anthony Brown,
foreign language major, who plans to start school at Temple University in
Tokyo, Japan, this January.
Mr. Brown, 22, is currently completing a Japanese studies program at LACC.
He is taking his fourth semester in Japanese and can read and write it with
some fluency, he said. He plans to study digital media in Japan. “I’m
interested in becoming a game designer, graphic designer,” he said.
His interest in Japanese culture began at age 13. “I liked the samurai,
shogun movies and I always wanted to know what they were saying. Also, I
like to play video games and many of them are made in Japan. And most of
them still have graphics and audio in Japanese. I’m also a fan of anime,
Japanese cartoons.”
He said he was very pleased with LACC’s program which also offers classes in
Japanese civilization, and he still stays in contact with all his teachers.
He said he decided to go to Temple because he saw a recruiting poster for
the school on a classroom wall. Earlier this year a Temple recruiter came to
campus and he was hooked.
Two years ago his friends persuaded him to go to LACC. They too wanted to
learn Japanese for various reasons. So he and four friends enrolled together
in beginning Japanese, he said. And he and a friend continued to the
advanced classes.
When asked how his family is reacting to his decision to study abroad, he
reported his mother said, ‘Did I say you could leave?’ Her mixed feelings in
seeing him study abroad is tempered with the knowledge that he is doing
something he has always wanted. “My grandmother is happy for me,” he said.
“Initially she told me that I should study Spanish. But I told her, how is
that going to help me in Japan?”
After he graduated from Los Angeles High School, Mr. Brown worked at a
number of temp jobs for two years while exploring different career fields,
such as cooking, art, and computers. “One of the reasons I’m in school is
because of my dad. He told me to finish my schooling. He said, ‘If I can get
up in the morning and go to work, you can go to school.’ ”
In addition to classes in Japanese, Anthony has taken drawing and art at
LACC. He works at Fedex as an information agent and gets credit for his work
experience through the college’s business co-op program.
With its main campus located in Philadelphia, Temple University’s outpost in
Japan is situated in the Minatoku district, in the heart of Tokyo. Mr.
Brown’s classes at Temple will be taught in English and he will be living on
campus during his first semester. He recently found out his application fee
was waived, and he hopes to pay his hefty tuition and living expenses of
$27,000 annually with a Stafford loan. Temple University, Japan Campus,
serves 2,600 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Its students
come from more than 30 countries around the world
”This is a definite plus for Anthony, going to an American-based school in
Japan, as it is accredited in the United States,” said Eiko Chatel, Japanese
professor and chair of LACC’s foreign languages and humanities program. “I
am pleased at Anthony’s success, which is typical of many of our outstanding
students. I also encourage other students wishing to study in Japan to take
two years of Japanese language instruction at LACC.” said Ms. Chatel.
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