KINGSTON, R.I. – Feb. 26, 2025 – Whether it’s the undergraduates she tutors or foreign exchange students she engages with, Korali Kouadio has a natural ability to engage with people. From assisting first-year students in introductory language classes to guiding students in more advanced courses, Kouadio’s ease in connecting with people is apparent.

Her ability to communicate effortlessly comes naturally. It could be the fact that she’s a non-traditional student or that she speaks multiple languages. Ask any of her students or professors and they’ll say Kouadio is easy to talk to. 

A conversation with Kouadio will reveal a slight accent. English is not Kouadio’s first language. Neither is Spanish. Instead, the first language she learned was French. Kouadio is originally from Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast in English) in West Africa, where French is the national language.

With that level of skill learning multiple languages, Kouadio recently achieved a level of proficiency not seen before in URI’s Japanese program.

Her journey to Rhode Island was made possible by her father, who moved to the U.S. but later returned to Côte d’Ivoire, when she was 23.

“I wanted to come to the U.S. but didn’t know anybody,” said Kouadio. “By the time I was able to come, my dad had retired and left to go back to Ivory Coast.”

Kouadio was alone in a foreign place. With all the time in the world and no family, Kouadio turned to her passion: education. Before coming to the U.S., Kouadio attended university in France, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in cross-cultural management. Though she had a degree, upon arriving in the U.S., she began to question her career prospects. 

“I thought maybe I should go back to school because with my degree I didn’t know if I would be able to find a job,” said Kouadio.

Kouadio began her journey for a second college degree 30 minutes from Kingston at the Community College of Rhode Island. It was there she learned about URI’s International Engineering Program, and it was the direct transfer path that led her to URI.

For the girl who likes to talk, the draw of the IEP program was the language component. 

“I was always into foreign languages, but I wasn’t sure I could make a living out of it,” said Kouadio. “I went for engineering as part of a personal challenge because I always say I don’t think I’m a math person.”

And it’s her love of languages that allowed Kouadio to achieve something special. So special in fact that she’s one of only two URI students to ever achieve it. The other is her classmate Liam Connaughton.

In December, Kouadio traveled to Boston to take a Japanese language N1 proficiency exam—the most challenging level for non-native speakers. It’s so challenging that some native Japanese speakers have trouble with it due to some of its nuances. In January, she learned she passed. Her professor said the achievement is remarkable considering Japanese is considered one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn.

“In English, you have subject, verb, and then object, but in Japanese, the subject comes first, followed by the object, and then the verb,” said Hae Ree Jun, an assistant professor in the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department at URI. “Students literally have to think the opposite way when they want to produce a sentence.” 

Even a slight error in Japanese can alter the meaning of an entire sentence, which is one of the reasons it’s particularly difficult for English speakers to master.  

However, she did have some experience with Japanese. The Ivorian, who’s often in African colors, admittedly enjoys manga, comics and graphic novels from Japan. And like her African colors, manga and anime are often displayed in vibrant colors. An example of this can be seen in one of Kouadio’s favorite anime series, and one that is popular throughout the U.S. and Japan, “Dragon Ball Z.” 

She would watch shows like “Dragon Ball Z” intermittently without subtitles picking up words here and there. She’d attempt to converse with her friends in Japanese, but it was rudimentary – like how a toddler might talk to a parent.

“My friends, they wouldn’t like to correct me,” said Kouadio. “For them, it was all about if they could generally understand me.”

Her casual, self-directed study of Japanese finally came to a screeching halt when she enrolled in the IEP and chose Japanese as her language major. The structured program provided the foundation she needed to excel.

Kouadio says, “It’s nice having a framework instead of just randomly learning words and then trying to ask my friend, ‘Hey, what does that mean?’”

URI’s Japanese language track consists of eight semesters, taught by Jun and two other faculty members. Despite the relatively short duration of each class, Jun ensures that the curriculum is comprehensive and immersive. Students develop proficiency in writing, speaking, listening and reading through a well-rounded approach that integrates real-world scenarios, cultural contexts, and practical applications.

In addition to the regular track classes, Jun also teaches special topics courses, that focus on Japanese through the lens of texts and media and Japanese for academic and professional purposes, that encompass a diverse range of speech styles reflecting a speaker’s status, relationships, and other social identities. Jun emphasizes the importance of understanding these variations, including differences in formality, politeness, and cultural nuances, to navigate both conversational and professional settings effectively.  

By engaging with situational dialogues and authentic materials such as news articles, media clips, and business documents, students gain the skills needed to communicate effectively in both casual and professional settings, preparing them for real-life interactions in Japan or with Japanese speakers.

Through these courses, students “can learn to read, for example, short news articles and short stories and understand video clips from anime and manga,” Jun says. This is particularly helpful for students like Kouadio. The N1 test, which is administered by the Japanese government, requires students to demonstrate proficiency in both spoken and written Japanese across various contexts. 

“For the highest rank, which is N1, you really have to know a lot of vocabulary, including words that can be found in both academic and professional genres,” says Jun.

Kouadio says she wasn’t confident going into the proficiency test. She felt she had limited time to prepare and was exhausted by the time she got to the listening part of the test. But ultimately the non-traditional student from Côte d’Ivoire was able to make history by being one of only two students to achieve the proficiency rating.

“I opened the letter, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I did it in one shot,’” said Kouadio. “I was very excited to tell our professor about it because she told us before, ‘Oh, nobody had done it.’”

Kouadio is unsure exactly what she wants to do after graduation, given her newfound proficiency in Japanese. For her, the language is more than just an impressive skill for her resume. It has provided her with a deeper connection to a new culture and a broader understanding of the world.

“I would describe myself as a lifelong learner, so I do like having new experiences,” said Kouadio. “Learning Japanese is like opening the door to a different type of entertainment and culture but also being able to connect with many different types of people.”