Whether it’s ordering food in a restaurant, talking on the phone or simply engaging in casual conversation, nothing compares to the immersive experience of being surrounded by native speakers when learning another language.
Justin This, a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary East Asian Studies master’s program, will have the chance to experience Chinese culture firsthand as a recipient of the prestigious Blakemore Fellowship during the 2026-27 academic year at Tsinghua University in Beijing’s Inter-University Program (IUP) for Chinese Language Studies.
The Blakemore Fellowship provides full funding for one academic year of advanced level language study at the IUP at Tsinghua University. This is the only recipient for the upcoming year and the only Blakemore or Blakemore Freeman fellow going to China.
“It feels truly fantastic to be awarded this fellowship,” said This, who came to Ohio State after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Dayton. “Since I have been away from academia since 2020 and am still in the process of reacclimating, I didn't really expect to get the fellowship.”
Professionally, This is looking forward to developing his language skills, which he’ll incorporate into his future thesis papers as he moves through graduate school. Outside of academics, he now knows the decisions he made leading up to his return to graduate school were good ones.
“Pursuing the Blakemore Fellowship and the Inter-University Program served as a way to validate both the five years I spent away from academia, where I developed some incredibly helpful skills, and the decision to come back. It also reaffirms my decision all those years ago in high school to pursue East Asian studies over a few other options I was considering,” he said.
Through his studies, This hopes to develop his Chinese to a point where he does not need to actively think about the translations from English, something that will serve him in his future research and career opportunities.
“I hope that by the time I finish the program that will have changed and I will be able to speak and listen to Chinese without the need to translate it in my head,” he said.
This became interested in East Asian language and culture primarily in high school, where he took four years of Mandarin, but he also gained exposure through media like video games, popular TV shows and books, as well as a visit to South Korea during his undergraduate studies, making this return to that area of the world even more meaningful.
Aside from gaining a unique and immersive language learning experience, This is looking forward to the opportunity to travel throughout the country to other cities in China, trying new foods and reconnecting with some friends made during his previous time abroad.
“I'm excited to add another country to the list of ones I've lived in, and I hope to develop a better understanding of the idioms, colloquialisms and metaphors that inflect Chinese.”