Before leaving to spend a year teaching in Japan as a Fulbright scholar, Benjamin Melusky, Ph.D., made a promise.
“I will bring valuable insights from this experience to better educate my American students,” the associate professor of political science said last year as he prepared for his time abroad.
Back in Norfolk and teaching this fall, Dr. Melusky is honoring his pledge.
His experience reflects the kind of global engagement seeks to bring into the classroom, with faculty experiences and expertise expanding how students understand their fields, their communities and the world beyond them.
For Melusky, that means giving students a perspective on American politics shaped not only by studying the subject at home, but by teaching it from the other side of the world.
At the same time, he continues to unpack thoughts about his Japanese adventure.
Asked if it was all he had hoped it would be, he said yes and no. In short, it’s complicated.
“Just how much of the culture you absorb when you’re there really shocked me,” Dr. Melusky said.
He found adapting to a radically different culture both exhilarating and isolating. And while he found much to be admired in Japanese society, he learned about dysfunction, too.
Overall, he was surprised at how quickly he assimilated. “I did start to dream in Japanese,” he said. “And even things like the quietness, right?” There, on the street, people don’t shout or talk loudly.
“There’s a saying in Japanese that translates to, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” he said. “In society, you don't want to have too much attention drawn to you.”
A Teaching Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, established in 1948, is devoted to increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. It describes itself as the world’s largest and most diverse international exchange program.
While some Fulbright scholars conduct research during their travels, Dr. Melusky’s was a teaching-only Fulbright. At two different institutions in the seaport city of Nagoya, he taught the nuances of American political experience by tackling topics like public policy, state and local governments, and morality politics.
Students at Nagoya University and nearby Nanzan University told Dr. Melusky their initial image of the United States was shaped by Hollywood movies and corporate giants like Disney and Coca-Cola. The professor challenged students to look beneath the glitzy exterior to examine the gears and levers of American government.
Comparing the United States to Japan gave students plenty to think about, Dr. Melusky said.
“I was teaching those students, looking in from the outside, how to understand what's going on in America … There's overlap between our two systems,” he said. “And then there are a lot of things that are completely different. It was interesting to have those conversations with students, especially outside of the classroom.”
Reacting, Adapting
Japanese students, Dr. Melusky found, were generally less likely to speak out in class than Americans. The language barrier didn’t help. The class was offered in English but levels of student proficiency varied.
A pivot was needed. Dr. Melusky tinkered with his teaching methods to allow for different learning styles and varied cultural expectations.
For example, he assigned podcasts — which were embraced by overburdened Japanese students, some of whom were taking 11 classes at a time.
The lessons followed Melusky home.
Teaching students from another culture forced him to reconsider some of the assumptions he brought into the classroom and find new ways to reach students with different experiences, expectations and learning styles. Now back at , he is applying those lessons to his own teaching.
“Now, I’m coming at it with more realistic empathy, more realistic expectations,” he said. “At , we have such a diverse population of students in terms of commitments outside the classroom.”
Time to Explore
Dr. Melusky enjoyed extracurricular activities during his year abroad. He sang karaoke with Japanese colleagues.
“People like my version of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline,’” he said. “It doesn't matter what country I'm in, I'll sing it.”
He climbed Mount Fuji in what he describes as the culmination of his Fulbright time. Baseball is popular there and Dr. Melusky attended several games and a minor-league hockey match — an unexpected thrill for this loyal Philadelphia Flyers fan.
Among his most treasured memories is traveling to the Kyushu region at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago.
Kyushu doesn't get many tourists from the West. English is less widely spoken there than in other parts of the country. Far away from Japan’s tourist hot spots, Dr. Melusky settled in and witnessed ordinary life.
“I would go into a restaurant, and I was probably the only Westerner they'd seen in like six months,” he said. “Just kind of getting lost in the western prefectures, those were some of my favorite moments. I had some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life, some of the most interesting food.”
This political science professor sounded wistful describing a traditional pork cutlet recipe.
“We always talk about Japanese culture with an eye on the art, the beauty, the perfection,” he said. “When you work on something for 700 years, you can perfect it, you can make it an art. You can take the time to slowly nurture it.”
Back to Japan?
Melusky’s Fulbright experience could soon take students to Japan themselves.
He and Assistant Professor Charmaine Willis, Ph.D., hope to lead a study abroad program there next summer titled “.” Students would experience well-known cultural destinations as well as World War II memorials and places outside traditional tourist routes, using those experiences to explore Japan’s history, culture and place in the world.
For Melusky, it would be another way to turn what he learned during his Fulbright year into an opportunity for students.
“This is the beauty of studying abroad,” Dr. Melusky said. “This is what we need to be doing in a globalized world.”