SLIPPERY ROCK — A Slippery Rock University professor is seeking host families to house a few Japanese students coming to the school next month.

Yukako Ishimaru, a Japanese language and culture professor at SRU, said 10 students are coming from Saga University in Saga, Japan, and will be at SRU from Sept. 11 to 22. She said that all of the students coming this year are female, and she has had trouble finding host families containing females.

“The students will not feel comfortable staying with a family without any other females. Also, they will be able to relate themselves more easily to learn American culture,” Ishimaru said.

Host families will be responsible for:

[naviga:ul]

[naviga:li] Breakfast every day except Sept. 12[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li] Dinner every day except Sept. 19[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li] A bedroom[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li] Transportation to SRU[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li] Friendship[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li] Communication with the student to enrich the student’s and the family’s cultural insights.[/naviga:li]

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“The biggest expectation is to build friendship between the families and the students,” Ishimaru said.

While on campus, students will attend two hours of English as a second language instruction each morning and attend classes such as programming, social studies education and intercultural communication in the afternoon.

Ishimaru said the students also will have SRU students as conversation partners.

Last year, 10 students visited SRU from Sept. 8 to 14.

“This success was all thanks to the host families, conversation partners, staff and professors who were kind enough to help the program,” Ishimaru said.

Anyone interested in serving as a host may contact Ishimaru at yukako.ishimaru@sru.edu.