Think of the culture clashes that Toyota’s arrival may bring to Northeast Mississippi: East and West, cosmopolitan and rural, wealthy and, well, hoping to be wealthy. Ole Miss will provide facilities, faculty and administrative support for classes aimed at a couple of those – Toyota’s native Japanese culture and the company’s special way of working – that will come with the auto plant. “I think our primary mission is to help them,” said Ole Miss Provost Carolyn Staton. “We’re planning to work with them on the Japanese Saturday school for the children and an engineering program in combination with (the Business School) that teaches the methodology that Toyota uses.”

Ole Miss officials are eager to see how Toyota’s presence may impact demand for Japanese language courses, which currently have 40 to 45 students. “Unlike with traditional classes, students in Japanese attend class four days a week,” said Dr. Donald Dyer, chair of Modern Languages. “We have a co-requisite class in Japanese culture.” Along with Japanese instruction, the university – along with local school systems – may see more demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes because of Toyota’s coming. A possible influx of even more Spanish-speaking construction workers could push the need even further. For industry and education alike, Dyer said, “ESL and things like that are becoming big-ticket items.”

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