International students come from all corners of the world to UW-Whitewater
Alumni & Friends, Summer/Fall 2004

Yoko Motoshima of Japan is a junior double-majoring in psychology and advertising with a marketing minor. Her career goal is to work in market research at an international company in her hometown of Tokyo. Like Deniss, she heard UW-Whitewater had a good business school.

Yoko says her father, a businessman, understands the need to "live" in a country in order to assimilate. At age ten, Yoko moved to Chicago with her family and lived there several years before returning to Japan. As the only Asian in her neighborhood, she experienced some racial discrimination.

“America is known as a melting pot, so I was surprised there would be any prejudice,” she remembers. She also found it difficult to adjust to the ways Americans express emotion. In Japan it is considered impolite to look people in the eye, especially older people.

“We do not say ‘I love you’ and there’s no hugging. It was hard for me at first to hug,” she says candidly. – Jane Provorse