Lasting Impressions

trevor.kenney — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:57:33 +0000

Academic, artist, author and world traveller, Dr. Hiroshi Shimazaki is widely known for his watercolour landscape paintings. Shimazaki's career at the U of L in management and human geography allowed him to incorporate his passion for travel and painting into his life journey.

While working on research projects around the world, he has always recorded his excursions through sketches and paintings.

Here, in his own words, he recalls a trip with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge President Bill Cade and wife, Elsa. Fondly remembering that time and commissioned by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Shimazaki painted Solid Foundations as a parting gift for the couple from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

I wanted the subject of the watercolour to be a place with which Bill and Elsa connected through their work with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, and to reflect their long-standing interest in native cultures and their personal ties. In discussion of its subject matter with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, several choices presented themselves, all familiar landscapes: the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the City of Lethbridge, Lethbridge environs including Waterton National Park, a Kainai site or some other place. What I ultimately chose was Xochimilco (flower field place) at the outskirts of Mexico City, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Xochimilco's history is long and, of course, complex, but what speaks to me in relation to what Bill and Elsa have done for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ these past 10 years is the development of "chinampa" in this area. This agricultural practice enabled the inhabitants to utilize the shallow lake to grow crops and thereby sustain a civilization. The foundation for the crops was created by placing large reed mats on the water, covering them with a thick layer of mud taken from the lake bottom and planting fast-growing trees that put down deep roots to anchor them. Centuries later the chinampa are now solid land crisscrossed by canals like the one in the painting. Families and tourists enjoy music and food on the "trajineras," the colourful boats that ply the canals. The title of the painting, Solid Foundations, speaks not only to the Xochimilco landscape but also to the Cades' innovative, unswerving efforts to strengthen the internal and external foundations of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, with outstanding results.

Solid Foundations, Xochimilco, Mexico City. Hiroshi Shimazaki.

The original sketch of this waterscape was created in 2002, the year the Cades, Ali Dastmalchian (then-dean of the Faculty of Management) and I visited Universidad Panamericana (UP) and Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa (IPADE) in Mexico City, and UP's Guadalajara and Aguascalientes (Universidad Bonaterra) campuses to renew the Faculty of Management's first international exchange program agreement. I have wonderful memories of that trip, especially the opportunity it presented for me to get to know both Bill and Elsa better and, of course, the incredible introduction they gave me to the world of crickets as we listened to their love songs on the Aguascalientes campus.

To view the entire issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Summer program a Spanish expedition

trevor.kenney — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:10:23 +0000

This May, Luz Ospina, academic assistant, Department of Modern Languages, will accompany 11 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students as they immerse themselves in the language and culture of Mexico City as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's pilot Spanish summer immersion program.

"Currently we offer a minor in Spanish, but we are in the process of developing a Spanish major. The six-credit immersion course came about because of that. We were also trying to create a relatively easy and efficient way for students to acquire oral fluency in the language," says Dr. Raquel Trillia, who teaches Spanish in the Modern Languages Department. "Immersion makes it much simpler. It is more natural."

The International Centre for Students (ICS) has played a major role in getting the program off the ground.

"The professors of modern languages came to us with the idea of doing an immersion program and asked for assistance finding a Spanish speaking university," explains Laura Ferguson, co-ordinator, International Programs and Exchange for ICS. "We have a long-standing exchange agreement with the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City so we were able to use our contacts there and partner with them on the program."

Students, who must complete Spanish 1100 prior to leaving for Mexico City, will spend six weeks living with Mexican families. Monday to Thursday mornings, they will attend Spanish language classes at the university, studying all aspects of learning a language, including pronunciation, conversation, reading and writing. In the afternoons, they will be involved in various activities that will expose them to Mexican culture, art and history. They will also participate in guided field trips to enrich the cultural experience. The great bonus is that students will be continually immersed in the language: shopping, cooking, interacting with their hosts and learning about the culture through everyday experience.

"I would expect that the workload will be intense; they will be required to write papers and do presentations, and from that the students should achieve greater oral proficiency," says Trillia. "Students who come back to our classrooms having lived this experience are going to enrich our Spanish program. We are hopeful that this program will be successful and that we will be able to continue to run it in the future."

Evelyn Peters is one of the 11 students going to Mexico City.

"This is an awesome opportunity to learn the Spanish language hands-on. I expect to pick up the language much more quickly and have a better understanding of, not only the language, but also the culture," she says. "I plan to graduate with a BEd in Modern Languages. I will feel much better equipped to do this after spending time immersed in the language. I am very grateful for this opportunity. Vamos a Mexico!"

For more information, contact the Department of Modern Languages or the ICS, or send an e-mail to raquel.trillia@uleth.ca or laura.ferguson2@uleth.ca.

UNews - Universidad Panamericana

Lasting Impressions

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Summer program a Spanish expedition

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