Listening Outside the Door: The Importance of Global Perspective

Address at the Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities
Otsu, Japan
20 March 2007

By Dr. Allan E. Goodman
President and CEO, Institute of International Education

It is a special pleasure for me to visit this Academy.  The prospect of spending an evening close to Lake Biwa and always causes me to re-read The Tale of Genji.  For many who have studied it closely, this novel – said to be the world’s first – is unsurpassed in it beauty, power, and mystery.  As Royall Tyler notes in his new translation:  “After eight and a half years spent translating, pondering, and discussing it, I still cannot imagine how she created it.”  So I also think about Lady Murasaki when I come here.

We do not even know her given name. Or when she was actually born or died.  She would not have had the chance to attend this Academy.  Or any school.  As with other court ladies, she wrote poetry and told tales to occupy time.  But she was also curious about the world beyond the boundaries set for her.  According to Professor Tyler, Lady Murasaki records in her diary that she learned Chinese “by listening outside the door while her father taught her brother.”  It is an image that I ask you to keep in mind as I offer some thoughts on the importance of having a global perspective and the challenges facing those of us in the field of international education to provide just that.

When JIAM was founded, a little over 40% of the world’s population lived in municipalities.  Today, that proportion has grown to more than 50%.  In many ways, we live in a world shaped more by urbanization than anything else.  The 20 most populous cities in the world are larger than 137 countries.  What happens in and around them affects multiples of countries as well as other cities; their interconnections drive our economies and define the many of the key global issues leaders of all countries are facing.  This makes what the Academy devotes itself to of global importance.  And it is another proof that the world is flat.

For only the second time in a thousand years do most scholars agree with this proposition.  The discovery that so many jobs can be done in many places means that borders are dissolving and that there is unprecedented mobility of people and ideas.  And the book that proves that this is so by Thomas Friedman is number 16 on Amazon.com’s list of most popular items in the world.

Boundaries are also dissolving for higher education, but less rapidly.  And this is creating a tension in many countries between what is needed from education and what universities are actually producing.  This tension creates a space that JIAM so importantly fills.  In my country as well as yours, the normal academic preparation for a career in municipal affairs does not include either the international or the intercultural.

In part, this reflects a more general reality: the internationalization of higher education is still in its early stages.  There are more than 200 sovereign states today; in only 20 of them does the enrollment of international students in higher education exceed 1%. Nearly 60%  of all who study in countries outside their own do so in just five places: the US, UK, Germany, France, and Australia.  Less than 1% of Americans in higher education are currently studying abroad and a survey by the National Geographic Society last year revealed that only 20% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 had a passport.

JIAM courses and study visits provide, consequently, what most university educations do not.  It opens doors as well as minds.  Your trainees serve as citizen diplomats at a time when the number of Japanese university students coming to American institutions has declined substantially; a decade ago, there were over 47,000 Japanese students at our colleges and universities compared to 39,000 today.  You visit places not usually on a student’s map and you ask questions about how to solve problems we have in common.  You share what works in your society with municipal officials that may not even have a passport and may never have the opportunity to come here.

As you will know from your own press, moreover, Japan is much on American minds these days.  Even though over 50% of adult Americans cannot find your country on a map, most worry about the impact of the Toyota racing team on NASCAR.  A recent Sunday New York Times Magazine featured the company in its cover story but with this headline: “From 0 to 60 to World Domination.”  At the same time, Letters from Iwo Jima called by CNN a “masterpiece” and nominated for four Academy Awards is an extraordinary statement from a director who said he was bothered, after making “Flags of Our Fathers,” by telling only half the story.

For all the years that Mike Mansfield was the U.S. ambassador here, he would make the point that the relationship with Japan was the most important that the U.S. had, as he would always put it, “bar none.”  Few say that today.  So it is even more important for us to know each others’ stories and the worldwide challenges on which we are working together to solve.

I am not, consequently, going to lecture on what JIAM should be doing or doing differently.  This Academy is a model for many.  My purpose is, instead, to encourage you to continue to make the investment in the effort to build bridges, visit my country, and do more than listen outside the door. 

The Institute of International Education is honored to be associated with an outstanding example of international education and we pledge our best efforts to making your study visits worthwhile and a genuine opportunity to promote mutual understanding. 

When I have the pleasure of welcoming your trainees to Washington, the best part of our time together for me is the Question and Answer session that follows my remarks.  So in order to continue this tradition – and to have a real dialogue – I would welcome your questions now.